The Flame's of Emotion!
by Tailed Beast King
Summary: Unlocking his bloodline, Naruto becomes the Fire Dragon Slayer on the Wave Mission! How will this change the story? Read to find out! Rated T for now, might change later. Slight crossover with other shows. Naruto/Kin only. Up for adoption, sadly. If anyone is willing, then please take and do this story justice. No need to ask, just take.
1. Journey to Wave

**Author's Note**

For the past year or so, I have been having hundred's of ideas for stories. Each time I tried to work on it, I had to stop because I could never continue it for some reason. But this is a story that really caught my attention.

The pairing will stay with Naruto, Kin, no one will be added.

Some characters will be a little OP. Sasuke/Sakura/Council bashing. Naruto is not god-like or an idiot. He won't be as smart as Shikamaru but definitely better than he was.

I will not make Kin fall for Naruto straight away. I have read that happening in a few stories and was disappointed. So it will happen soon but not straight away. Possibly around chapter 10 or so if I make it that far.

Also, I will make sure that he is getting better training for his trip with Jiraiya. I found it stupid that he went away for three years and only managed to make a Giant Rasengan and a little bit of mastery with the Kyuubi's chakra. Yes, I am planning on this fic going to Shippuden as well. I just hope I keep working on this.

My other story, The Light Within the Darkness, is still under construction. I have been working on the second chapter for a while now. Unfortunately, work and life have gotten in the way a lot. I will try to keep updates to a chapter per month at the least.

If my grammar and wording are terrible then please let me know. I am using Grammarly which has been helping a lot with my punctuation and spelling.

* * *

"Talking"

 _'Thinking'_

 _"Talking Mentally"_

 **"Demon/Monster Talking,"**

* * *

 **Story Begin**

* * *

Naruto sighed as he walked down a dirt path, following his team and their client. They had left the village of Konoha on their first ever C-Rank mission and he was pretty excited about it. He was honestly hoping that, for his first C-Rank, he would guarding a princess or something as awesome as that, but instead, he and his team were escorting a drunk bridge builder by the name of Tazuna back to his home village in Wave Country. They would have made great progress if they didn't have to stop or slow down for their client.

Glancing at his team, he wondered why anyone would allow them a C-Rank mission when it was clear they weren't ready for it. He know's he was the one that shouted for a better mission, but he didn't exactly mean it. What really didn't help was his teammates, Sasuke and Sakura fully agreeing with him, which was a first. Sasuke would usually say nothing or just insult him, while Sakura would also insult him and agree with Sasuke, no matter what he does. Their sensei, Kakashi, was probably the only reason why Naruto stayed on the team, as the man was always looking out for him.

What didn't help though is that Kakashi was ordered to train Sasuke so that the Uchiha would be ready for when his Sharingan activated. It was also quite obvious that the order also meant to ignore Naruto and focus on the great Uchiha, which Kakashi was not doing. Chuckling, Naruto remembered back to all the times he was saved as a child by ANBU. One particular ANBU had gravity-defying silver hair, much like Kakashi's. He honestly felt like an idiot for not figuring out they were the same person until AFTER the Bell Test.

There were very few things he hated in this world, but the Civilian Council was one of them. Throughout his life, the Council was the one thing that made it a horror. If it wasn't for them, he might have had a chance to grow up normally.

On the day the Kyuubi was sealed, the Third Hokage announced to the Council that Naruto was the new Jinchuriki to the Kyuubi. The Clan Heads were all fine with it, knowing the difference between a sealing scroll and the object sealed within said scroll, but the Civilian side were more narrow-minded. They immediately saw baby Naruto as the Kyuubi incarnate and demanded his death. The Hokage defended him though and made a law that anyone mentioning Naruto's status would be executed on the spot. This somehow didn't stop the Civilian side to spread a rumour across the village, convincing both villagers and shinobi's that Naruto was the demon itself.

For the first fourteen years of his life, Naruto experienced nothing but pain as drunken mobs would hunt him nearly every night and beat him and torture him until he was wishing for death. They always did this, at least until he became a Genin. Now, they just glare at him with nothing but hate, with the random rock or rotten food being thrown at him. They call him names like 'monster' or 'demon'. For a long time, he had no idea why they did this, but on the day he graduated, he was told by a traitor named Mizuki. On the day of his birth, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, Kyuubi, was sealed inside of him. At that moment, Naruto finally understood. He understood why all the villagers hated him, why they tormented him for years and made his life a living hell.

The odd thing was that he didn't resent them for it. He knew that it was the fear of Kyuubi that made them blind to the truth, how they could see him as the Kyuubi and not as the jailor. If it wasn't for the handful of friends he gained over the years, he might have ended up being exactly what the villagers think of him as. A monster.

A demon.

Glancing at his team, he wondered how they would think of him if they learned that he had the Kyuubi sealed inside of him. Sasuke, if he did hate Naruto, would no doubt attack the moment he got a chance. No matter what, the Uchiha heir will always be an 'attack first, ask questions later' kind of guy. Sakura would either be on Sasuke's side or actually listen to reason for once, but the former option was probably more likely. It was near impossible to tell what the other Genin would think either, as he doesn't really know them all that well. But something was telling him that he could trust most of them.

Kakashi tensed ever so slightly, and while he hid it well, Naruto saw it easily. Immediately, he looked around to see what put Kakashi on edge and quickly saw a puddle in the middle of the road. While a puddle normally wouldn't raise any suspicion, Naruto knew it hasn't rained in over a week so it was impossible for a puddle to be there, which only meant one thing.

 _'Genjutsu and an obvious one at that,'_ thought Naruto, stepping over it. He saw that both Sasuke and Sakura were oblivious to it, making him sigh, _'Okay, obvious to most people then.'_

He figured that when the fighting would start, Kakashi would disappear to see how they would do in a real life combat situation, as all Jonin do this from time to time to evaluate. While he was confident that he could put up a fight, he wasn't so sure about his teamwork with Sasuke or Sakura, especially if Sasuke would try to take charge and Sakura would do nothing.

Just as soon as he thought that a chain shot out of the 'puddle' and wrapped itself around Kakashi before ripping him to shreds. Naruto scowled as he heard Sakura scream. He actually had to cover his ears as he nearly felt them bleed, _'Could she not tell he used a Replacement Jutsu?'_ he thought as Kakashi's 'corpse' was actually a log. Two figures appeared from the puddle, both wearing dark clothing and an over-sized gauntlet each which were connected by a long chain.

Looking at them, Naruto could clearly see the Hidden Mist headband they both wore with scratches through them. Before anything was said, though, Sasuke shot at them with a kunai raised, intent on ending this before it barely even began. Within seconds, the closest Mist Shinobi blocked Sasuke's attack and bent the Uchiha's arm behind his back, effectively subduing him, "Stupid Genin," said the Shinobi holding the arm, "Just give us the Bridge Builder and we'll let you all live"

"Or don't," said the other Shinobi with a mad look in his eyes. He almost sounded hopeful as he spoke, "We don't mind going through a few kids just to kill the old man"

Naruto frowned at the situation. He had an idea but it wasn't going to be easy since Sasuke was in the enemies hand, "Sakura," he said looking at the terrified pinkette who shakily looked back at him, "I need you to protect Tazuna, can you do that?" She nodded, albeit hesitantly, "Good"

He took a step forward and pulled out a kunai, having a sharp look in his eyes. He could sense that Kakashi was watching from a nearby tree but put that thought to the back of his mind as it wasn't important, "So the brat want's to play" said the man that wasn't holding Sasuke.

"I recognise you both," said Naruto, making sure to watch both Shinobi's movements, "You two are Gozu and Meizu, the Demon Brothers, B-Rank Nuke-Nin"

The one that wasn't holding Sasuke, Meizu, laughed behind his mask, "I'm glad to know that there are some people that know to fear us"

Naruto smirked, "I never said I was scared," he said, making Meizu stop laughing, "In fact, I'm actually disappointed. I was hoping for a better challenge"

Gozu, holding Sasuke, scowled with a look of anger in his eyes, "You little brat! Meizu! Finish him off quickly! The sooner we get this done the sooner we get paid!"

Meizu glanced at his brother, and that was the moment Naruto struck. He seemed to have vanished from sight as he moved too quickly for anyone to see. By the time Meizu looked back to where the blond was, he already felt a tug on his gauntlet. Looking down, he saw a kunai embedded in the ground with a tag attached to it, holding down the chain. He widened his eyes, "Oh shit!" he shouted before the tag exploded, destroying the chain completely and tossing Meizu away.

Gozu, who was watching the whole thing, turned at the last moment and swung at Naruto, who was behind him with a raised kunai. Naruto jumped back in time and had to jump again as Meizu ran at him, _'Recovered faster than I thought'_ thought Naruto, _'He is angry, though, which means he's not focusing. I just have to time this right...'_

Meizu was livid. He was angry at the fact a _kid_ managed to get one over him. He just kept swinging his gauntlet at him, hoping to hit the boy with his clawed hand or at least swipe him with what was left of the chain. But no matter how fast he swung, the boy kept evading. Angrily, Meizu yelled, "Hold still!" Naruto seriously wanted to roll his eyes but didn't in case he got hit. Did the guy really expect him to just stop because he said so?

Naruto saw that when Meizu swung his gauntlet, the man looked as if he was straining to even lift the thing, meaning it was heavy. Getting an idea, Naruto ran close to Meizu and waited for him to swing down. Like a moth to a flame, the man couldn't resist as he threw his arm down. All Naruto did in response was step back, let the gauntlet hit the ground, and swung a kick at the man's jaw so hard that Naruto thought he heard a crack.

Meizu flew backwards and slammed into a tree, already unconscious before the impact. Gozu saw everything that happened and was shocked. He could barely see the kid move when he dodged as it looked like he was vanishing from side to side, all around Meizu. Feeling a tug on his arm, Gozu turned and didn't have time to react as Sasuke flipped over him, so that their positions were in reverse, and then held a kunai to the man's throat, "Damn it!" he shouted as he tried to struggle. He was confident that he could overpower the kid holding him, but the knife pressing to his throat made him think otherwise for now.

Sakura came running over, as Naruto walked while dragging the still unconscious Meizu by the foot, "Sasuke! That was amazing!" shouted Sakura as soon as she got close.

"Wasn't difficult," said Sasuke, acting as though he meant to get caught, "These fools just underestimated an Uchiha, which could have been fatal," he said, tugging at Gozu's arm and pressing the kunai a little harder to his throat, drawing a little blood.

Gozu scowled behind his mask, "Don't kid yourself, you little bastard. All you managed to do is catch me off guard"

This one little comment angered Sasuke. Nobody insults him and get's away with it. Without thinking he raised the kunai and plunged it down, desperately wanting to kill the man. But a steel gloved hand grabbed his arm and stopped him. Looking at who it was, he was shocked to see his Kakashi, "S-Sensei?!" screeched Sakura, thinking he was dead.

"He used a Substitution, Sakura," said Naruto as he dropped Meizu in front of his brother, "He knew what was going to happen and was ready for it"

Glancing at Kakashi's 'remains', Sakura saw that Naruto was right and that the 'body' was just shredded log, "I knew that" she said in a condescending tone, "I mean if an idiot like you figured it out now then, of course, I knew about it"

"Sakura," said Kakashi with an eye-smile.

Turning to her teacher, Sakura replied, "Yes, Kakashi-Sensei?"

"Shut up," he said with a hard look. Sakura wisely decided not to say anything.

After a minute, they managed to tie both Gozu and his brother to a tree, making sure to tie their hands in case they try to use any Jutsu. Kakashi was crouched in front of them, inspecting how injured Meizu was, "Naruto," he said, gaining the blond's attention, "Good job on beating him, but try not to break their jaw next time. We do need answers from them, after all"

Hearing this, Naruto gave a small embarrassed laugh while also rubbing the back of his head, "At least I held back" he said.

"True," muttered Kakashi, wondering how neither Sasuke nor Sakura were listening. Glancing at Gozu, he saw the man glaring at him, "You know, you could just tell us why you were after the Bridge Builder, it would save a whole lot of trouble... and by trouble I mean pain, of course." Still nothing, "Alright have it your way"

"Shouldn't you try to convince him to talk instead of going straight for the torture?" questioned Naruto with a raised eyebrow.

Kakashi shrugged, "He's stubborn. But we do have a mission to accomplish so I would rather get this done quickly" He looked at his team, "You three, I want you all to take Tazuna and continue walking. I'll deal with this"

* * *

In a half hour, Kakashi finally returned to his team, giggling as he read the little orange book he always carried around. As soon as he caught up with Naruto and the others, he stopped them and stood in front of Tazuna, book gone in his pocket and a lazy-yet-serious look in his lone eye, "You lied to us," said Kakashi.

"Wait, what?" asked Sakura, blinking in confusion, "What has he lied about?"

"Those were the Demon Brothers, and as Naruto said to them, they were B-Rank Nuke-Nin," explained the Jonin, "That would have easily raised this mission from a C-Rank to a B-Rank, and only because there were Shinobi involved with the enemy. But that's not the problem..." he trailed off.

Sasuke rose an eyebrow while he stood there with his arms crossed, "Then what is the problem?"

"... The Demon Brothers and known to work for Zabuza Momochi, the-"

"The Demon of the Hidden Mist," said Naruto, interrupting Kakashi, who just nodded in response. Naruto looked sharply at Tazuna, making the man flinch, "Zabuza was known to be a part of the 'Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist', each member being A to S-Rank in the Bingo Book"

Sakura was now scared as she pictured a demon slaughtering people in her mind. In a stuttery voice, she asked, "Y-You said he 'was' a-apart of the group, what did you m-mean?"

Kakashi continued Naruto's explanation, "The Hidden Mist Village was infamous for a few reasons, the Seven Swordsmen being one of them. Another reason was their graduation exam. In any other village, there would be tests to determine who could be a Shinobi, as you three already know, but in the Mist, they make the entire graduation class slaughter each other" Sakura gasped at this while looking pale. Sasuke was wide-eyed, not believing a school could do this. Naruto didn't seem to react to the news, though, "The survivors would then become Shinobi as they have proved themselves"

"So Zabuza did that? Killed his class?" asked Sasuke.

"Well, yes and no" replied Kakashi, "He was a few years younger than you three, barely starting the academy, before he walked in and killed everyone, including the teachers"

"The 'graduation ceremony'," Naruto said with air quotes, "is the reason the village was nicknamed, the 'Village Hidden in the Bloody Mist'"

They stayed silent after that, before Tazuna broke the silence, "What will you do now?"

Sighing, Kakashi looked towards the sky, "Well, because of Zabuza the mission is definitely now an A-Rank, which you three shouldn't even be on now," he said, looking towards his team, "But I would like to know why you lied in the first place" he said, now looking at Tazuna. "You knew there were Nuke-Nin after you, but you just wanted protection from bandits, so why the lie?"

"Because... because..." The man tried to come up with an excuse but couldn't and sighed in defeat, "The truth is, this is all about a bridge I'm building. Have you ever heard of a man named Gato?"

"Gato? As in Gato Industries?" asked Kakashi.

"Yeah, that's him. The little bastard has taken over my village. We use to be a great village, being able to trade with any nation, but as soon as he came, he stole everything we have. Now my home is nothing more than an empty husk," said Tazuna, with his teeth clenched and his hands balled into fists, "The little bastard is extorting money from all of us, taking everything we have. About a year ago, I came up with a plan to stop him. If I could build a bridge connecting us to the Main Land, then I could break Gato's hold on us and free my village. I have built most of it but he has been sending people to either scare us or kill us. I've lost half my workforce because of him"

Everyone stayed silent. Kakashi could see that his Genin were thinking hard of their situation. It was obvious Naruto would want to continue the mission, but Sasuke and Sakura were different. Tazuna kept looking at each member, worried if they would abandon him. He himself actually wanted to go, to stop Gato terrorising innocent people. That thought alone nearly made him laugh a little, _'Naruto must be rubbing off on me, I'm wanting to help anyone in need more often than I want to'_

Naruto stepped forward, "Sensei, we can't just leave the village like that. We have to help!" He then glanced at his teammates and back at Kakashi, "I refuse to abandon people in need, especially when can help them"

"... You're going to go, even if I say no, aren't you?" asked Kakashi. He then looked at Sasuke and Sakura, "And what do you two think?"

Sasuke just huffed, "If we do fight, then this will be a good chance to see how strong I am. I vote to go"

As soon as she heard that, Sakura spoke, "If Sasuke goes, then I'll follow!" Even though she tried to sound confident, you could hear how nervous and scared she was.

Kakashi sighed again, idly noticing he was sighing a lot recently. He blamed Naruto for that as he put that thought to the back of his mind, "Very well then," he said, "Tazuna, you now have your own protection detail until the bridge is complete. Afterwards, when this is all over, I will hopefully discuss with you about the payment"

"Thank you! Thank you all so much!" cried out Tazuna, literally crying as he drank some sake that he brought with him.

Naruto knew what Kakashi meant when he said 'hopefully discuss', meaning that Kakashi didn't know if Tazuna or any of his team would even survive this. A glint in the distance caught his eye, which made him look in that direction. He squinted his eyes trying to see what it was until a scent hit his nose, a scent that was easily recognised. Blood, and a lot of it. Just as he was about to shout out to his team, one of the missing shinobi from before shot out from the bushes with extreme speed, surprising Naruto as he had not expected them to be that fast. It was Meizu, the one he had knocked out, with his gauntlet outstretched and aimed right for Tazuna.

With a quick burst of speed of his own, Naruto jumped at the man and grabbed him by the claws of his gauntlet, cutting his hand in multiple places as it was very sharp. Persevering through the pain, he pushed the clawed hand up and pulled out a kunai, stabbing it into the man's chest. Sakura screamed as all of it happened, as Sasuke just watched with wide eyes. Tazuna had fallen over in shock as the man was about a metre away from him and Kakashi just watched with a sad look in his eye.

Without so much as a sound, Meizu just stood there. He glanced down at the kunai deep in his chest and then back at Naruto who looked at him with hard eyes. His vision began to darken and he could feel his life slipping. He desperately tried to order his body to move, to attack the boy, to do anything. But it refused to listen. It wasn't long until darkness clouded his sight, and he was dead, slumping to the ground.

Naruto just stood there, staring at the body for a few seconds before turning back. He noted the stares he received from his teammates, "What?" he asked.

"Y-Y-You just k-killed him!" shouted Sakura in fear. She had never seen anyone die before but just the look of a body made her want to run back home.

"If I didn't kill him, he would have killed me," stated Naruto, like it was nothing. Kakashi nodded at that, having had the situation happen to him multiple times. It was alway's kill the person or let them kill you, so the decision was easy.

Sasuke was also pale, but only a little. This was the first body he has seen since the night his family was killed, so it brought a few memories back, memories he pushed away for now, "Why are you acting like it was nothing? You took his life!"

"A lot of Shinobi, when having to kill someone, tend to shut off all emotions," said Kakashi, while looking up at the sky, "I, myself, have had to close off my heart just to kill. The reason is because, some Shinobi enjoy killing, turning themselves into monsters. I shut off my emotions, so I don't let the death effect me. Most Chunin learn to do this, and all Jonin do it"

"It's a way of protecting your own heart," said Naruto with a small smile. When Sasuke and Sakura looked at him, he said, "Gramps, or the Third Hokage, told me those words after I... after I had my first kill"

Sakura gasped, "You've killed before?" All Naruto did was give the same smile and walked away along the road. Sakura looked at Kakashi in confusion, "Sensei? What happened to him?"

"It's not my place to tell," he said, walking away to catch up to Naruto. When he did, he noted that the blond's hand was still injured, "You do know that their gauntlets were poisoned, right?"

"Poison's already out of my system," said Naruto, showing his hand. Kakashi just watched as the wound was already beginning to heal, "Kyuubi is useful for some things," he whispered quietly enough for Kakashi to hear, and no one else to listen, "So, are we just going to leave a guy tied to a tree and a body in the middle of a road?"

Kakashi gave a hum of thought, "No. I made a Shadow Clone to deal with the body. The clone will also send a message to Konoha asking to send someone to retrieve Gozu"

Naruto nodded at that, thankful that he actually wasn't going to leave a body like that. When the rest of the team and the client caught up, they all walked in silence. Sakura was now too scared to talk to Naruto, now knowing he killed before. And Sasuke didn't seem to care, but whenever he looked at Naruto, he had a small look of anger for some reason. Tazuna just kept drinking like he normally does.

* * *

"Hey, Tazuna," said Sakura as everyone sat on a boat, slowly crossing the water towards Wave Country. When the man looked at her, she asked, "What was your home like? Before Gato arrived"

Tazuna was about to drink some more sake but stopped when she asked. He wasn't expecting a question like that, "Well, it was perfect, to say the least," he said with a smile, "Our village had a few trading routes but we always had people visiting because of our attraction"

"Attraction?" repeated Naruto, thinking of party rides and the like.

"Yep. About a thousand years ago, there was a great tribe who travelled the world. They were small in numbers but each member was as powerful as a Kage," said Tazuna, "They fought in many battles, never to be defeated"

Everyone was now listening, interested in the story, "What were they called?" asked Sakura.

"They were known, as the Dragon Slayers. Each member were masters of every element you could think of; fire, lightning, poison, even light and shadow"

Sasuke snorted, but was very interested in how strong these people were, "If they were so powerful, then how come we've never heard of them"

"Because they were eventually feared for their power. The people they protected began to hunt them down, one by one," replied Tazuna, sounding angry, "Only one survived and he fled to a different country. He lied low, trying to avoid being noticed. Apparently, because all his friends died, he began to hate humans and lived in solitude. It was years before he began to build a village and let people in, and nobody know's why"

Kakashi glanced at Tazuna before going back to his book, "That village, it's yours, isn't it?"

Tazuna hesitated before nodding, "It is"

"What was the man's name? The one who survived" asked Naruto.

"Don't know. His name has been lost for centuries. We don't even know where his grave is, either"

By the time they stopped talking, they were already off the boat and walking along a dirt road through a dense forest. Each of them were just doing their own thing as they walked. Kakashi was reading his little orange book as he walked next to Tazuna, who was once again drinking from an endless supply of sake. Sasuke was quiet as he brooded like he usually does, next to Sakura as she randomly stared at Sasuke. They were both behind Tazuna and Kakashi, while Naruto was up ahead, keeping a look out for any enemies.

A noise caught his attention and he quickly threw a kunai on instinct. He flew through a bush until there was a thud. Everyone stopped to see what was happening as Naruto walked towards the bush with another kunai in hand. He was tense as he went past the bush, expecting an enemy but nearly fell over when he saw a terrified looking rabbit underneath the kunai he threw.

"Naruto!" shouted Sakura, scaring some birds that were in the trees, "Why did you do that?! It's just a rabbit!"

"Yeah," replied Naruto, staring at the rabbit, "A white rabbit"

Sasuke snorted, "Who cares what colour it is? It's not important"

"That's where you're wrong, Sasuke," said Kakashi, "The only time rabbits are white is during winter or if they're in colder climates. It's summer right now, and all rabbits are a darker colour. This means that, unless the rabbit travelled from a colder climate very quickly, this one was kept indoors for a long time"

Naruto stood, looking about with sharp eyes, "Not only that, but just a moment before my kunai landed, I felt a small spike in chakra in this area. No doubt it was from a Substitution Jutsu"

Just as Sakura was about to argue with Naruto, saying how he was probably a paranoid idiot, Kakashi twitched. He heard a noise in the distance behind them. He could easily recognise the sound as a heavy object being thrown in their direction. Without hesitating, he shouted, "Everyone, get down!" while also taking Tazuna down with him.

Sasuke dove down to the ground, just as a giant cleaver burst through the forest, smashing through trees like they weren't even there. Sakura was frozen, shocked at the sudden turn of events. Naruto was also about to dive down when he saw Sakura still standing. He also saw the giant blade going straight for her, so he acted quickly and used a Substitution Jutsu to swap places with her, just as the blade was about to hit her.

He appeared before it, with the cleaver a couple of metres away from him. Pulling out a kunai, he pumped as much chakra as he could into it, trying to reinforce it. He didn't know if the kunai would even hold up against it, but he didn't have much of a choice. He felt both blades slam into each other and had to grit his teeth as the force of impact made the bones in his arms creak. His feet were planted into the ground but the blade kept pushing him back. Even though the kunai in his hand was reinforced, he began to see cracks appear all over the knife.

The giant blade was about to smash it's way through the kunai before Kakashi appeared and grabbed the giant blade's handle, pulling it away from Naruto and into a nearby tree. Again, it smashed it's way through but landed in another tree, embedding itself in it. Naruto, thankful that he didn't have to push back, fell to his knees, panting. He looked up at Kakashi, "Thank you"

"No problem," replied Kakashi with an eye-smile. The eye-smile disappeared, though, when a man appeared standing on the handle of the giant blade, "I'm impressed," said the mysterious man, his voice deep and gravelly, "There aren't many people that can hold up against my Executioner's Blade, much less a little Genin"

Standing up, Naruto was about to step forward but Kakashi put his arm in the way. "Well, I'm the exception in most cases," replied Naruto.

"Zabuza Momochi," said Kakashi, "I wasn't expecting to see you so soon"

"Well, when I heard that Kakashi Hatake and his team of brat's defeat the Oni Brothers, I just had to meet you," the man said as he turned around and jumped down to the ground, "Those Oni Brothers come out of my paycheck, you know. So I lost a bit of money because of you"

Kakashi stared at Zabuza and made it look like he dropped his guard, "Maybe if you surrender, we can work something out"

Zabuza just laughed a little, which sounded dark to Naruto, as he pulled his sword out of the tree and held it with one hand like it weighed nothing, "I don't work like that. I'm more of a; kill first then get paid for it, kind of guy"

They both went silent after that, just staring at each other. Slowly, Kakashi got into a stance and said, "Naruto, I want you and the others to protect Tazuna. If anything happens to me, I want you all to take Tazuna back to his village and go back to Konoha, no excuses"

"But-" began Naruto, but Kakashi interrupted.

"No excuses"

While Naruto didn't like this, he knew not to disagree with a superior, "Fine," he said. He ran back to the others, and the three of them all stood around Tazuna, protecting him.

Once Naruto was back with the others, Kakashi sighed as he reached for his headband. Seeing this, Zabuza laughed again, "Ah, so I have the honour of fighting 'Kakashi of the Sharingan', I'm actually flattered that you reveal it before we even fight"

Opening his left eye to reveal a three-tomoe Sharingan, Kakashi stared at Zabuza as he got into a stance, holding a kunai in each hand, "Well, if I'm fighting against the 'Demon of the Hidden Mist', I can't very well hold back, now can I?"

Before anyone could say anything, Zabuza raised his left arm into the air and his right in front of his face, shouting, "Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Kakashi could sense Zabuza's chakra seep out, just as a heavy fog appeared in the area, obscuring his vision greatly. His Sharingan usually could see through Genjutsu and other vision-based Jutsu, but because the mist was made from Zabuza's chakra, it was difficult to see through it.

Difficult, but not impossible.

 _'Now, where did you go?'_ thought Kakashi as he looked around the area. Nothing happened for a minute, like Zabuza just up and left. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy, _'There!'_ he thought as Zabuza's chakra signature spiked behind him.

Gathering his chakra, he released it in a pulse, dissipating the mist around him and in the area. He looked back at his team, knowing that the spike of Zabuza's chakra came from that direction. His eye's widened when he saw Zabuza standing in the middle of the Genin, ready to strike with his Executioner's Blade raised in the air.

For a moment, Naruto was confused. He wasn't expecting the mist to suddenly disappear. He had felt a chakra signature spike, knowing that it was Zabuza's, but he wasn't good enough at sensing to pinpoint where the man was. But, thanks to his childhood growing up in the village, he had developed a sixth sense for danger, knowing where people were going to strike at him. Feeling the danger was behind him, he spun around to see Zabuza in the middle of his group with his sword raised. Acting quickly, he dropped down and swept-kicked Tazuna, Sasuke, and Sakura down so they could dodge the incoming blade. The moment the blade hit the ground, Naruto took out a kunai and thrust forward, stabbing Zabuza in the gut.

He had expected blood to come out of the wound, not water which confused him. That confusion nearly cost him as the man he had stabbed melted into a puddle of water, just as the real Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and slashed his sword. The sword cleaved it's way through Kakashi, only for Kakashi to explode into water as well, "What?!" shouted out Zabuza in surprise before he felt a kunai at his throat.

"Thanks to the Sharingan, I saw you make a Water Clone," explained Kakashi.

"And then copied it," continued Zabuza in a growl. He smirked under the bandages over his face, and said, "But I bet you didn't see this"

To Kakashi's surprise, Zabuza exploded into water and he felt a sharp kick to his back, launching him towards a clearing that had a large lake. He rolled to a stop just on the edge of the lake, _'Say what you want about Zabuza,'_ thought Kakashi as he tried to stand, _'The man has a strong kick'_

He stood up and looked to see Zabuza running at him. The man side-swiped at him, which Kakashi jumped over and slammed a kick to his jaw. Zabuza quickly recovered and used his sword to block Kakashi's punches. They traded blow after blow, neither backing off. Sasuke was having a lot of trouble keeping up with their speed, but Naruto could see it, albeit with some difficulty.

Something happened that Naruto didn't see and whatever it was, it caused Kakashi to fly into the lake water, "Damn it," muttered Kakashi before he glanced at the water, "Wait, this water doesn't seem right. It's dense and heavy..."

Zabuza appeared above Kakashi, standing on the water and performing a lot of hand signs, "That's because the water is laced with my chakra," he said, stopping on a hand sign and slamming his right hand into the water, "Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu!"

"No!" shouted Kakashi as he struggled to get out of the water. But it was too late as the water submerged him. He kept getting spun around, getting disorientated. After a few seconds, the water rose out of the lake, taking him with it until he was next to Zabuza, inside a ball of water. He could barely breathe or move.

"Good luck with escaping," began Zabuza, making sure to keep his hand in the water, "The water is stronger than steel, it will be impossible to break"

Naruto cursed from where he stood, not liking this one bit. He didn't know if Zabuza had caught Kakashi off guard, or if Kakashi had underestimated Zabuza, either way this wasn't good. He took a step forward but was stopped when he heard Kakashi shout from within his prison, which was fairly impressive seeing how the Jonin could barely breathe or move.

"Naruto! Take the others and run! You aren't ready for this kind of fight yet!" shouted Kakashi in desperation.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto weighed his options. He could do as Kakashi ordered and run, but what was to stop Zabuza from chasing and killing them? Or he could fight and try to free his sensei, which had a chance of death of everyone here. Both options seemed impossible, but before he could come up with any sort of plan, Sasuke walked forward and got into a stance while gaining a smirk, "This will be easy"

"Dumbass!" shouted Naruto in anger, "That guy just took out Kakashi! What makes you think you could do any better?!"

"Better than standing around and doing nothing!" shouted back Sasuke, thinking that Naruto was frozen in fear, not realising that his blond teammate was actually trying to come up with a way to save their lives, "Besides, I'm an Uchiha. I can't lose"

Naruto honestly wanted to take the Uchiha and murder him senseless at the moment. The bastard was so arrogant he was blind to danger. Then again, up until a few years ago he himself was so idiotic that he probably would have done the same. Sakura was cheering her crush on from the sidelines, not even making sure that Tazuna was safe, who looked like he could pass out at any second due to how scared he is.

So he watched as Sasuke threw dozens of kunai at Zabuza who just stood on the lake. The man slightly leant in different directions, easily avoiding all the projectiles aimed at him. As soon as he saw the Genin stop, Zabuza made a single hand sign with his free hand and said, "Water Clone Jutsu!" causing the water next to him rise and turn into a copy of him, "If throwing kunai is all you brats can do, then you don't even deserve to be called Shinobi, let alone Genin"

The clone ran at Sasuke and they fought, but Naruto could tell that the clone wasn't even trying, _'Don't have a choice now, I have to fight, especially if the dumbass going to die'_ thought Naruto as he ran towards the fighting pair. Once he was close enough he intercepted Sasuke, grabbing the Uchiha's fists, and throwing him back to Sakura and Tazuna.

"Why the hell did you do that?!" screeched Sakura, running over to Sasuke who was now unconscious as he had hit his head on a tree, "Sasuke was beating that guy!"

"Like hell he was!" shouted back Naruto, making sure to keep an eye on the Water Clone, "Zabuza wasn't even trying! If he was then Sasuke would be dead by now!"

Sakura scoffed as she placed Sasuke's head on her lap, "Naruto! You idiot! You don't know anything! Sasuke can beat anyone, even trash like Zabuza!"

A tic mark appeared on the real Zabuza's forehead and he was actually turning a little red in anger, "You know," began Kakashi, getting Zabuza's attention, "I won't mind if you go and kill her, she is really annoying"

"Okay, first off, the second I let you go you'll try to fight me," stated Zabuza, knowing that Kakashi had obviously lied, "Second, I am actually tempted to go slice her in half"

Now Naruto was getting angry at his teammates. Ever since they were put on a team together they did nothing but insult and belittle him constantly. Even now, when he had just saved Sasuke's life against a high-ranking missing ninja, Sakura still insults him. He shook his head, knowing that he should be focusing on the issue at hand now. Zabuza was A-S Rank Shinobi for a reason so he shouldn't underestimate him. He's fighting a clone which is weaker than the original but still pretty strong.

Zabuza was a close range fighter, which was obvious because of the sword, and it didn't seem like he had any long-range Jutsu, unless you counted the Water Clone which could follow them pretty far. He himself only had the Shadow Clone Jutsu as well as the Replacement Jutsu and the Transformation Jutsu, which were basic Jutsu that any Shinobi could spot. It didn't help how they were far enough away from the trees in the forest so that they could not use the Replacement Jutsu.

The real Zabuza wasn't moving from his spot either but instead, he was using a Clone. He was also keeping his hand in the Water Prison Jutsu, which meant that he needs to have constant contact to keep it up. The only way any of them were making out of this alive is if he can somehow manage to free Kakashi. A plan was forming in his head, but it was risky. But before he could do anything, though, he had to take care of the clone.

While he was thinking, the clone vanished and appeared behind him, readying to slash him. Quickly reacting, Naruto just managed to duck under the slash and tried to kick the clone. But he wasn't fast enough to dodge a fist to the stomach, which launched him towards the water and the real Zabuza, who kicked him away. Naruto landed in the water and floated there for a second before surprising Zabuza as he actually lifted himself above the water, "You can fight while Water Walking?"

"I've had some training," replied Naruto, unzipping his orange jacket and throwing it away as it was wet and heavy.

"So you know who I was the moment you saw me, managed to push back my Executioner's Blade while also focusing your chakra into your kunai, and now you can fight while concentrating your chakra on your feet," listed the real Zabuza before he laughed, "If I didn't know any better, brat, I would have thought you were a Chunin"

Naruto smirked as he raised his right hand to his face, "Well, I am called the most Unpredictable Ninja for a reason" The next thing Zabuza's clone knew was that at least a hundred clone's of Naruto were launching out of the water, surrounding him and each held a handful of kunai and shuriken, "NOW!" shouted Naruto, as all the clones threw their weapons.

The Zabuza Clone managed to dodge most of them as he also used his blade to deflect the rest. But a kunai that flew past him caught his attention as it had a tag attached to its handle, "Shit!" was all the clone could say as he tried to jump away. Naruto's smirk grew a little as he concentrated his chakra and aimed it at the tag, causing it to set a lite before it suddenly exploded in front of the Zabuza Clone. There were a lot more tags all around him, each being set off one after the other. It took a minute for everything to calm down, and when it did, there was no sign of Zabuza's Clone anywhere. Satisfied, he dispelled all of his own clone's.

Turning, Naruto looked to Zabuza to see his reaction and was happy to see shocked eyes staring at where the man's clone was before slowly turning to him. Just before he could say anything, though, Zabuza felt a kunai being pressed to his neck. He turned his head slightly, only to see another Naruto behind him, soaking wet, "How?" was all Zabuza managed to growl out.

"I knew you would have sensed anything coming from behind you, so I deliberately went overboard with the exploding tags to distract you," explained the Naruto behind him, as the Naruto in front of him disappeared in smoke, "Now, let my sensei go or I'll kill you"

Weighing his options, Zabuza growled out again as he somehow backed himself into a corner. He cancelled the Jutsu that held Kakashi, who in response was gasping for breath, "Good job, Naruto," said Kakashi once he got his breath back, "But I ordered you to leave if anything happened to me"

Naruto grinned sheepishly, "Yeah, well, I wasn't comfortable with leaving anyone behind"

Kakashi just rolled his eyes before looking at Zabuza, "Now then, are we going to have to kill you? Or are you going to give us some answers?"

Zabuza said nothing as he glared into Kakashi's eyes. While he was highly impressed with the brat that beat his clone, it also pissed him off mightily. Using a subtle hand sign that neither Naruto or Kakashi noticed, he signalled to his subordinate hiding in the tree line to act on their contingency plan, but nothing happened. After a few seconds, Naruto finally saw his hand twitching, "Hey, what are you doing?" he questioned.

Kakashi looked and saw the twitching. He recognised it, as he had seen many Mist Shinobi use it years ago. He quickly spun around, scanning the tree line as he knew there was someone there, working with Zabuza. But he couldn't sense anyone, there were no chakra signature's whatsoever. That is until a massive pulse of chakra suddenly appeared above them. The three looked up to see dark clouds gathering. Sensing how powerful it was, Kakashi shouted, "Jump!"

Both he and Naruto jumped away into the air. Zabuza was about to do that same, away from the Konoha Shinobi obviously, but he couldn't move his legs. Looking, he saw that his feet were encased in ice, "WHAT?!" he roared as a massive bolt of lightning appeared from the sky and slammed down onto him. He screamed out as it coursed through the water and into him. He passed out quickly and fell into the water, just as the lightning stopped and the ice melted.

Kakashi and Naruto landed on the water, about to jump in after, until a man appeared where Zabuza was standing, "Well, that was interesting!" the new man said with glee. Naruto had no idea who this was, not recognising him from the Bingo Book or at least the parts he read, "Such a shame I had to give my old friend Zabuza a quick funeral"

Looking at the man, Kakashi spotted two odd looking blades on his back. Recognising them and the fact the man mentioned a 'funeral,' Kakashi realised who this was, "Raiga Kurosuki," he said, "Last I had, you were on the edge of the Land of Earth"

"Zabuza contacted me about this job and I was running out of people to give funeral's too, so I decided to help. Never thought I would give him a funeral, though," he said with such a sick grin that it made Naruto feel ill just looking at him. Raiga rested a hand on one of the hilt's of his sword, "Now, I wonder if you and your Genin would like a funeral as well"

Kakashi knew it was threat, but he had wasted too much chakra trying to escape from the Water Prison Jutsu. Naruto wasn't tired and still had a lot of chakra left, but he couldn't fight against Raiga, who was just as dangerous as Zabuza but was more insane. Neither of them would be able to beat Raiga. Keeping his eyes on Raiga, Kakashi spoke, "Naruto, we're leaving, now"

Naruto wanted to argue, but knew he shouldn't so he obeyed the order. Both he and Kakashi slowly backed away towards their team, as Raiga walked away, humming a tune you would hear during a funeral. They stayed at the shore for a minute, making sure the enemy was gone before they relaxed a little. Tazuna ran up to them, as Sakura was too busy running her hand through Sasuke's hair, who was still unconscious as well, "Are you two alright?!" asked Tazuna when he got to them, panting from the small run.

Kakashi was leaning a little on Naruto, "We'll be fine, just need a little rest is all," he said, lowering his headband to cover his Sharingan, "Is there someplace we could rest up?"

"My home isn't far," replied Tazuna, "It's a mile that way," he said, pointing.

"Thank you," said Kakashi, "Naruto, I can walk for now. I think you should go carry Sasuke as he isn't awake yet"

Naruto grumbled, not happy with having to carry the Uchiha, "Shouldn't have thrown him that hard," he muttered to himself. He walked over to Sakura, "We're leaving now," Sakura looked at Naruto before looking back down at Sasuke, "I need to carry Sasuke, Sakura"

"Fine," she said, standing up and helping to put Sasuke on Naruto's back, "But, I swear, if you hurt him or drop him in any way-"

"Yeah, yeah, you and the rest of your fangirl horde will hunt me down" replied Naruto, having heard this before. He grunted a little, not expecting Sasuke to be heavy. Weights were heavier, but this was just after a battle with Zabuza so Sasuke was heavy enough. They all walked slowly, following Tazuna as the man knew his way through the forest. Naruto picked up his pace a little, now walking next to Kakashi, "Why would Zabuza's partner attack him like that? It doesn't make sense"

Kakashi was reading his book as he walked but glanced at Naruto quickly, "I'm not sure. To be honest, I never would have thought that Zabuza would team up with Raiga of all people. Zabuza was one of the original Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and the survivors never liked any of the people that took their swords"

"Raiga isn't one of the original Swordsmen?" asked Naruto in surprise. He had only just started reading about the Seven Swordmen recently, which is how he knew about Zabuza, but the other members were still a mystery.

"No, he isn't. Most likely he killed the swordswomen, Ameyuri Ringo and took her swords for himself," said Kakashi before he looked thoughtful, "But the people that have taken a sword from the Original Seven all wanted to become a part of that group, I don't think Raiga had any desire to do so"

Naruto had a grim face, "If he just killed a teammate and acted like it was nothing then he would be willing to do anything to win, which means he's going to be extremely dangerous"

"About that, I don't think Zabuza's dead," said Kakashi, saying that like it didn't mean much. But everyone looked at Kakashi in shock, with Naruto thinking over the events that had just happened.

"But Sensei," began Sakura, "How can he still be alive? He sunk down to the bottom of the lake and the amount of electricity coursing through him was more than people get from a lighting strike"

"I don't think Zabuza was expecting that kind of attack from Raiga. I think he was expecting something from someone else, another partner"

"So you think the other partner swam down and saved him?" asked Tazuna, receiving a nod from Kakashi, "So, there's three of them then?" Another nod, which terrified Tazuna, "What the hell are we going to do then?! You and blondy just barely managed to hold up against Zabuza, but the pink head didn't do anything and the other brat got knocked out so easily!"

Sakura glared at Tazuna, wanting to seriously scream at him but Kakashi interrupted her thankfully, "Even though there are more enemies than I had anticipated, I will send a message back to Konoha asking for back-up. In the mean-time, I will be training my Genin. Judging by how strong the lightning current was, plus the fact that he was in the water which made the current stronger, Zabuza should be healed enough to fight in the next two weeks"

"But what of Raiga or the other partner attack before he's healed?" asked Naruto.

"Tomorrow you three will be going with Tazuna and guarding him at the bridge along with one of my clones. This is so that I can heal and take over guarding the next day, in case they decide to attack Tazuna. Once that happens, I will be leaving a clone behind to teach you three"

As they were talking, houses appeared in the distance, which made the group pick up their pace a little, "Welcome, to my home!" announced Tazuna with a sad smile, as everyone could see how sad a dreary the place was. No matter where you looked there were run-down houses, bottles of alcohol all over the road, "My house is just this way"

They followed him in silence, with Naruto at the back. He could see many children hiding behind other people or around the corner staring at his team. He could see how frail and small they were, reminding him of when he was young and living on the streets of Konoha. Desperately trying to block the memory, he looked away from the people, but he could hear their cries and feel how desperate they were. It pained him to just ignore them but he couldn't do anything.

 _'I promise you,'_ thought Naruto, clenching his fist tightly, _'I will stop Zabuza, Raiga, and whoever else is working for Gato, and put an end to their plans. I will free you all from Gato's control!'_

As he made that silent promise, the group had arrived at Tazuna's home. The man opened the door and shouted, "Tsunami! Your father's back!"

Almost immediately, you could hear a set of footsteps descend from the top of the house. A woman quickly walked to the door and had a happy face as she gazed at her Tazuna, "Father! I wasn't expecting you for another day or two!"

"Well, we hit a few problems along the way but we still made it in time"

The woman, Tsunami, turned her gaze onto the Shinobi. He looked turned from happy to nervous, "And who are these people, Father?"

"These are the Shinobi from Konoha that are protecting me," explained the old drunk, "This is Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke," he said, pointing to each person respectively.

Tsunami bowed her head towards them, "I thank you for protecting my Father"

Kakashi had an eye-smile has he rubbed the back of his head, bashfully, "It was no problem, ma'am. We wanted to help anyway!" Naruto nudged him a little, indicating towards Sasuke, "Oh, I forgot about him," muttered Kakashi before he turned to Tsunami, "Would it be too much trouble to ask if we could come in and rest? One of us is unconscious and I need to sit down"

Finally noticing Naruto and the boy on his back, and wondering how she didn't notice them when her father introduced them, Tsunami gasped a little, "Oh! Please come in!"

* * *

It was now night time and most were now asleep. Kakashi was asleep, along with Sakura, while Sasuke was just brooding as he threw kunai in Tazuna's backyard. Naruto was just sitting on the roof, staring up at the star's above. He didn't know why, but he had an odd feeling about the coming events. Like something was going to happen.

Elsewhere, in a secret hideout, Zabuza lay unconscious on a bed. Above him was a young boy wearing a mask and Raiga, who was quietly humming to himself, "Oh, it truly looks as though he is dead," said the deranged man, tempted to give Zabuza a real funeral.

"I still do not agree with your method's," spoke the young boy, "My senbon would have been enough to incapacitate Lord Zabuza, there was no need for you to reveal yourself or even hurt Lord Zabuza the way you did"

"But I put on a good show, didn't I?" asked Raiga ina rhetorical way. He noticed that Zabuza was twitching a little and he grinned, "Ah, he's waking up"

Opening his eyes, Zabuza immediately saw that he was in his hideout. He could also see that his Executioner's Blade was next to him as well. His eyes landed on the young boy next to him and, before he knew it, his hand shout out and grabbed the boy by the throat, "Why the hell did you trap me like that?!" he shouted angrily. He was ignoring the pain that was coursing through his arm, "Well?! Tell me Haku!"

Haku was struggling to breathe as Zabuza's grip tightened, "R-Raiga! H-He forced me t-to!" he choked out. Right now, his feet were off the floor, showing that Zabuza was lifting him by his neck.

Zabuza waited a few seconds, glancing at Raiga, before letting Haku go, who was gasping and coughing, "Never do that again, understood?" Even though he asked a simple question, Haku could easily hear the threat behind the words, making him nod in understanding, "Get out. I need to talk to this prick" Bowing his head, Haku quickly left the room, leaving the two swordsmen to talk. Sitting up, Zabuza glared at Raiga, not liking the man, while Raiga just stared back with a deranged smile, "What the hell are you doing here, Raiga?"

"Hmm?" Raiga hummed, "I just came because I missed you!" Zabuza's glare intensified, "I came here because I was bored and this looked like a lot of fun. I saw the people here, they looked like they could use some funerals!"

Zabuza just growled, "You're just as insane as ever. Whatever, as long as you don't get in my way you can do whatever you want"

"Oh, why _thank you, Lord_ Zabuza," said Raiga with heavy sarcasm. He didn't flinch or even lose his smile as the Executioner's Blade was thrown and stabbed into the wall right next to him.

"And if you ever attack me like that again! I will show you why I am the 'Demon of the Mist'!" roared Zabuza, still pissed at what happened. Raiga just laughed as he left, leaving Zabuza behind, _'What the hell are you up to, Raiga?'_ thought Zabuza, making sure to keep an eye on the psychotic man.

* * *

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **Author's Note**

This entire chapter is exactly 10,000 words! Not including the Author's Note, of course.

Well, I hope this first chapter was good. I obviously changed a few things and you could see that Naruto was more serious. Honestly didn't mean for him to be like that but I'm not making him a bumbling idiot.

I'm sure you can guess what Naruto's power is going to be. I chose it because I haven't seen any stories about Naruto getting this particular ability. And if there is a story that does, I haven't seen it. I only read Naruto/Romance stories. The one's where he's paired with someone. Don't know why, probably because I'm jealous and alone while Naruto can get any girl in all the stories! T-T

Anyway, I'll try and work on the next chapter. If you have any idea's for this story please let me know in a review or just PM me. Also, PM me if you have questions, please.

Please review what you feel this chapter and story is worth, or don't review as the choice is up to you. Criticism is welcome. As I said before, my punctuation is working with Grammarly so blame that if it's still terrible.

Thank you all for reading and I shall see you in the next chapter!


	2. Overwhelming Power

"Again," said Kakashi, supervising his team as they each did a different activity. Sakura was running up and down a tree, trying to increase her chakra reserves, while Sasuke was still trying to run up the full length of the tree so that he can get better chakra control. Right now, he has only made it about a third of the way. Naruto was currently doing one-handed push-ups as Kakashi stood on his back, while both were on top of a small lake.

Just as Kakashi had promised, he had left a clone to supervise his Genin on their training as he himself went to guard Tazuna at the bridge. It has been a few day's since their encounter with the infamous swordsmen and, so far, they have done nothing but train. At first, Sasuke and Sakura were amazed at how Kakashi was showing them how to use chakra to climb a tree but when they realised that Naruto already knew how to do it, they became jealous and immediately thought it would be easy if he could do it.

While Kakashi knew that Naruto could do the Water Walking exercise nearly perfectly, he saw a few slip-ups as they were fighting Zabuza. The reason he was standing on Naruto's back was to give the Genin some extra weight to work with and he was keeping an eye to make sure he wasn't sinking at all, "Again," said Kakashi once again as Sasuke fell from the tree. For some reason, the Jonin dug his heel into Naruto's back, causing the blond to lose a little concentration and sink a little.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOUR HEEL'S SO SHARP?!" Naruto almost screamed, prompting Kakashi to chuckle a little.

Sakura landed on the ground, panting and sweating. Never had she ran as much as she did today. Seeing that all the Genin were tired, Kakashi sighed as he jumped to shore. Naruto wasn't expecting this and fell into the water, "Let's take a break"

Sasuke just 'tsk'ed and continued to run up a tree while Sakura refused to move from her spot as she was too tired. Naruto crawled onto shore, soaking wet again and tired looking, but he stood up anyway, "No," he said with a pant, "I can go on"

"I know you can," began Kakashi before glancing at the others, "And Sasuke might be able to go on for another hour, but Sakura can't even move. Beside's," he said, looking in the direction of Tazuna's house and sniffed the air, "I think Tsunami has finished making lunch"

As soon as the word 'lunch' left his lips, Naruto was already up on his feet and running towards the house, "Food!" he shouted with hunger.

A sweat drop appeared on the back of Kakashi's head, "I swear, Naruto would fight through anyone just to get to his food" he said, picking up Sakura and placing her on his back, "Don't push yourself too much" warned Kakashi to Sasuke, "I don't want to come back and carry you" If Sasuke heard him, he didn't show it as he ran up the tree again.

"All finished!" said Tsunami in a happy tone. She just finished making lunch and was happy with the result as she placed the final bowl on the table. Turning around to put her apron away, she felt a gust of wind behind her making her a little confused, _'I didn't leave the window open, did I?'_ she thought to herself as she turned around again. What she wasn't expecting was to see Naruto in one of the seats, holding a knife and fork in each hand as well as having a bib down his shirt.

"...What?" asked Naruto, noticing how Tsunami was staring at him.

Shaking her head, Tsunami smiled, ignoring the fact that Naruto somehow managed to teleport to the seat out of thin air, "Nothing, I'll just go and let everyone know that lunch is ready," she said, walking away. Within minutes, everyone but Sasuke was sitting at the table, enjoying their meal. As she was eating, Tsunami noticed how the Uchiha wasn't at the table, "Does your teammate not want any food?"

"I'm afraid Sasuke just want's to focus on his training at the moment," said Kakashi, "But I do feel bad about him wasting your food"

"His loss, my gain!" shouted Naruto as he snatched Sasuke's bowl of rice and added the content's to his own. Oddly enough, no one seemed to care how he was shovelling all of his food into his mouth.

While he was ignoring Naruto's piggish eating, Kakashi bonked him on the head without looking, "It is not polite to steal other people's food"

"Say's the person that hasn't eaten anything because of his mask!" retorted Naruto before he gained a shocked expression when he saw that there wasn't any food in front of the Jonin anymore, even though he knew there was food there just a moment ago.

Kakashi gave an eye-smile, "Delicious"

"How the hell does he do that?" muttered Naruto to Sakura who was also thoroughly confused.

"So, how is the training coming?" asked Tsunami, in curiosity. It was rare for Shinobi to even visit her home village so she was curious about them.

Sakura groaned at the word 'training', while Naruto just continued to eat. Kakashi looked a little thoughtful before speaking, "Let's see here, Sakura's chakra control is just about perfect" Hearing this, Sakura gave Naruto a cocky grin, "But that's only because of her small chakra reserves. I am having her run up and down a tree so that she may increase her chakra reserves"

"Ha, ha!" Naruto laughed when he saw Sakura visibly deflate.

"Sasuke hasn't been able to run all the way up a tree because of his lack of chakra control. He's out there right now trying to run the full length. The more he does this, the more control he'll have" continued Kakashi, after bonking Naruto on the head again for the rude laugh, "And Naruto, while his chakra control is a lot better than both Sasuke and Sakura's, he need's to keep practising so that his control come's second nature. One little slip up in his concentration and his life could mean forfeit"

Sakura glared at Naruto for apparently having better control than her and her Sasuke, "Then why have him do push-up's with you standing on his back?"

"That was my idea," spoke Naruto, "Push-up's were getting too easy as of late so I need more weight. When we go back to the village I'm going to buy weights for my training instead of asking Kakashi to stand on me"

"My, all you Shinobi push yourselves so much, no wonder you are all so strong," commented Tsunami in astonishment.

Naruto frowned a little, "Not strong enough, though. Zabuza's clone was too much for me, which was why I had to use exploding tag's. Clone's are alway's weaker than the original, so I was never going to be a match for him," He then clenched his fist and looked very annoyed, "And Raiga took him out so easily"

"But it was a surprise attack," said Sakura, "He wasn't expecting it"

"Even so, Raiga is about the same level as Zabuza, but with how insane he is he is going to be unpredictable, which make's him even more dangerous," explained Kakashi.

Now, Naruto actually looked pissed as a tick mark appeared on his forehead, "I'm the only Unpredictable Shinobi around here! That bastard doesn't deserve that title!"

"I thought your full title was the 'Unpredictable, Knuckle-Headed Shinobi'?" asked Kakashi, only for a foot to slam into his face, courtesy of Naruto, "Touchy," mumbled Kakashi from underneath Naruto's sandal.

Sitting back down, Naruto said, "I never liked that name, and I bet you never liked your name, the 'Eternal Rival of Might Guy'"

Kakashi actually shivered in fear of the name. He may have been good friends with the... odd... man, but that didn't mean he had to like the guy's quirk's, "Touche, Naruto, and if I ever hear that name again from you, I'll make sure you're banned from Ichiraku for a month," he threatened.

That kind of threat actually did scare him, but just for fun, Naruto jumped from his seat put his right foot on the table, gave a massive grin, and gave Kakashi a thumbs up, "Yosh!" he shouted as sparkles appeared around him.

Everyone was shocked at this but no more so than Kakashi, who's lone eye held nothing but fear in them, "That's it! No ramen for you!"

"Oh, come on!" said Naruto, sitting back in his seat, "I was only joking!"

Tsunami's son, Inari, scowled from his seat, "Idiot's," he muttered a little too loudly.

"What was that?" asked Naruto, not liking what he heard.

"Inari!" chided Tsunami.

He ignored his mother, though, and glared straight at Naruto, "You're all idiot's! You all think this is a joke!" The boy then stood up, "All of you are going to die! And none of you are being serious about this!" he shouted before running back to his room, upstairs.

Naruto frowned at what the boy said and stood up to follow, but Kakashi motioned for him to sit back down, "I think Inari need's to be alone right now"

Tsunami gave a sad sigh, "I'm very sorry about that, he used to be such a sweet boy, until..."

"Until Gato?" finished Kakashi in a questioning tone.

"Until Gato killed his father," finished off Tazuna, with a look of rage. Tsunami gained a sad look as she remembered her late husband. It has been two years since his death but it still feels as though it was yesterday, "Inari's father was Kaiza," continued Tazuna, "He was a kind man, doing anything he could for anyone he met. He actually first met Inari by saving his life, pulling him out of a river. It wasn't long after that until he became a part of the family"

"He was such a good father to Inari, and I couldn't help but fall in love with him," said Tsunami, close to tears, "A few months after he saved Inari, he moved in with us, and after another month we were married"

Tazuna continued for his daughter, seeing that she was starting to get emotional, "Gato arrived a year before Kaiza ever entered out lives, causing hell for everyone. We were all afraid of him, none of us wanted to even oppose him! But Kaiza did... He fought against everything Gato stood for! When we were scared, he was brave, and he taught us how to stand and fight," as he was speaking, Naruto could see a fire in the man's eyes appear and burn brightly.

"What happened to him?" asked Naruto.

"Kaiza fought against Gato with everything he had, and eventually Gato had enough," said Tazuna, his voice sounding angry and sad, "One day, some of Gato's thugs came here and kidnapped him. When we found him he was tied to a post for everyone in the village to see, beaten and on the verge of death," Tsunami was now crying as the memories played in her mind, even Tazuna was gaining a few tears of his own, "We begged that monster to let Kaiza go, but he refused. He wanted to teach us all a lesson"

He grew silent as his tears fell. Tsunami excused herself so she could wipe away her tears. Even Sakura was crying, not believing that this was the Shinobi World she was now a part of. She knew people die, and that someday she might have to kill someone herself, but seeing a family so distraught, it horrified her. While he was telling his story, Naruto felt his rage grow with each passing second. He was tempted to go find Gato and kill the man for everything he has ever done.

"You don't need to continue if it's too much," said Kakashi, understanding their grief. He had lost friends and family in the past so he know's how they feel, all too well.

Tazuna shook his head, "No! You all need to know this!" he shouted before calming himself, "Gato is a monster, alway's has been. But what he did to Kazia was unspeakable. The bastard had his thugs slice Kaiza's arms off! And then had him executed for standing up to him!" As he wiped his eyes, everyone grew silent. Kakashi out of respect, Naruto because he didn't know what to say, and Sakura because she was too horrified to think or say anything, "Kaiza will alway's be our village's hero, but here we are, spitting on his grave as we hide away from Gato"

Tsunami eventually came back, her eyes red and slightly puffy. For the rest of the dinner, they ate in silence, not knowing what to say after the story. Sasuke eventually appeared, covered in dirt and bruises, but he didn't say anything and just sat down, brooding as he alway's does, making Naruto think that he still hasn't made it all the way up the tree yet.

Glancing at the father and daughter and seeing their sad faces, it sparked something inside Naruto. Before he knew it he was standing up from his seat and gained everyone's attention, "I cannot imagine what you both went through, but I promise you here and now, that bridge will get built so that Gato's hold on you all will break. I'll sacrifice my life if I have too!" shouted Naruto, making Kakashi smile beneath his mask, "No one else is going to die, except for Gato and the people that follow him!"

Neither Tazuna or Tsunami knew what to say. Both were astounded with Naruto's speech and couldn't help but believe in his words. It was odd, but the boy reminded them both of Kaiza, and that alone was enough for them to believe in him.

The next day was the same as any other, with the Genin training again and being overseen by Kakashi's clone. But after a few gruelling hours, the real Kakashi appeared. He didn't say anything to Sasuke or Sakura, but instead walked straight over to Naruto, "What is it Sensei?" asked Naruto through gritted teeth. Push-up's he could do fine, but the clone standing on his back was making him do the plank, which was more strenuous. So far he has been holding that position for a little over five minutes now.

"I just need you to go and watch over Tazuna at the bridge," the Jonin replied, loud enough for the other Genin to hear. When they heard this they lost interest and went back to their training. Kakashi's clone poofed out of existence, allowing Naruto to stand, shakily, on the water and walk over to him. Kakashi created another clone and ordered it to stay with Sasuke and Sakura, to help with their training. As soon as Naruto was next to him, they both walked in the direction of the bridge.

"So why is it you want me to watch over Tazuna? You could have just made a clone while you read that damn book of your's," accused Naruto, showing his dislike for the book. That book series was like a disease, perverting every individual that reads them, turning most into perverts. Naruto feared that, if he read even a single page, he would become a pervert himself.

As they were walking away, Kakashi suddenly felt like someone had insulted his life choices. Out of pure instinct, he lightly stroked the book that was in his pocket but answered Naruto's question, "I actually don't want you to guard Tazuna, at least, not at this moment. I have another mission for you"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, noting Kakashi's slightly serious tone, "Another mission? What do you want me to do then?"

"On my way to the bridge, I saw a couple of thugs walking towards the village," answered Kakashi, "I want you to go there and find them. Hopefully, they haven't left he village yet,"

"Do you want me to kill them?"

"No, I just want you to follow them," said Kakashi, surprising Naruto a little, "I hate to admit it, but your stealth is better mine, probably better than most of the Shinobi in the village. From what I know, neither Zabuza or Raiga are sensor's but their third member might be. I want you to find out where their hideout is and possibly identify their third member,"

Naruto listened intently, it wasn't common for a Genin to get a reconnaissance mission like this, "But what if I see Gato or Zabuza or the others and see a chance to take them out?"

"Do not do anything," replied Kakashi in a serious tone, "It is too high a risk. Surveillance only. As soon as you see where they operate, you come back here immediately"

"Got it, surveillance only. I'll bring you back something nice!" shouted Naruto as he ran in the direction of the village. Kakashi sighed, hoping that Naruto was kidding about bringing something nice back.

* * *

 **(With Zabuza)**

The 'Demon of the Hidden Mist' growled as he walked around. He finally managed to stand up yesterday and had a very noticeable limp when he walked. He also managed to use his sword to kill someone, especially after some thug working for Gato made fun of his limp. Him being bisected from the waist put the fear in everyone, which he enjoyed.

Raiga has done nothing but pester him, talking about all of the funeral's that he made in the past. He was so tempted to kill the man but the crazed fool might still be of use. Haku was mostly quiet, mostly just goes on walks and comes back with a basket full of herbs. Gato was worst of all. Every time the little man spoke to him, it was with a condescending tone. Alway's going on about his plans for the village and all of the women and children in it. He also keeps telling him to go and kill Tazuna right at that very second. But he always had to refuse, especially when Tazuna has a team of Shinobi guarding him.

His thoughts drifted to his fight with them. Kakashi was just as skilled as he had heard. It wasn't easy getting the man in the water but at least now he know's they're about even in strength. He had figured the Genin to be weak, which he was proven right when the dark-haired one attacked him. The pink-haired one that was standing at the side was also useless, clearly showing herself to be a fan-girl the dark-haired one. But what surprised him the most the blond kid.

That kid could not have been a Genin. The skill he had was at least Chunin level, possibly even Jonin. Plus, the amount of Shadow Clone's the kid use proved that he had an immense amount of chakra, more so than him, probably even more than a Kage. But something was nagging at him from the back of his mind. Something about the kid and that blond hair of his. Coupled with his blue eyes, he looked very familiar. It was actually frustrating him.

Walking around the base they were in, Zabuza passed Raiga, who was tossing one of his swords into the air and catching it, repeating the process again and again. Raiga saw him and grinned, catching his sword without looking it and sheathing it on his back, "Zabuza! I didn't see you there!"

"I wish you didn't," grunted Zabuza, immediately feeling annoyed by the man's voice.

"Aw, don't be like that"

"Just leave me alone," growled out Zabuza, "Go and make funeral's or something, as long as it's not around me"

Zabuza walked away at that, not caring if Raiga was going to reply or not. He missed a gleam that appeared in Raiga's eyes as a demented grin grew, "I like the sound of that"

* * *

 **(With Naruto)**

After half an hour of searching, Naruto finally found the thugs Kakashi told him to spy on. He honestly felt like hitting himself for not checking the bar first, as that was where they were. He watched as they drank, hitting on any women that walked by them, even hitting random people that even looked at them the wrong way. It took a lot for Naruto to not intervene, watching as innocent people were hurt for no reason. They even took the change that people gave to the homeless, sitting on the streets.

It was nearly an hour of watching before the thugs finally decided to leave and go back to their hideout, to which Naruto was thankful as he was starting to get bored. As he followed, he had to hide as the thugs randomly looked back to see if they were followed. Either these guys were paranoid and just had to make sure they weren't being followed, or they were so drunk they thought they were being followed. Either way, it was annoying as they did this every ten or so minutes.

A building rose in the distance, just past the treeline. He heard one of the thugs shout out, "Home sweet home!"

 _'Oh, thank Kami, I don't need to follow anymore,'_ thought Naruto up on a tree, letting the thugs walk away. A scream caught his attention, making him look back at the thugs and see both of them on the ground as a man stood over them. Looking more closely, Naruto saw that it was Raiga, _'What the hell is he doing out here?'_

Raiga stood over the thugs, laughing as he had just frightened them both by jumping down from the tree's, "That was too easy!" He then took one of his swords and slammed it into the ground, scaring the thugs even more, "You see?! Too easy! You both need to calm yourselves, otherwise, you'll have a heart attack! And if that happens, then that would mean a funeral!"

At the words 'funeral', both thugs got scared and ran off to the base as Raiga's mad laughter filled the air. Kakashi had told Naruto stories about Raiga, about how he killed anyone just for a funeral. Men, women, children, anyone would do. It sickened him. Before he knew what he was doing, he was following that psychopath, being extremely careful not to be spotted. He was walking towards the village, the exact path he just came from. Wether Raiga knew he was being followed or not, was difficult to tell as the man showed no signs of knowing but instead was just humming a tune you would hear at a funeral.

When they made it to the village, he watched as Raiga just walked about randomly, as if he had no destination in mind, _'What is this guy doing?'_ he thought before shaking his head, _'Almost forgot to let Kakashi know where the enemy are,'_

Just as he was about to make a Shadow Clone to tell Kakashi, so that he could stay and watch Raiga, he heard something being unsheathed and saw a sword being pointed at him, "I spy with my little eye," sung Raiga, "A Genin that knows too much!" he finished singing, "Now, I can't very well let you live after you followed those poor men to our little hideaway, now can I?"

Keeping calm under the situation, Naruto smirked, "I don't know, but there's a first time for everything,"

"You are absolutely correct," said Raiga, gaining a look that seemed more insane, if that was possible, "Like how this will be the first and last time you die!" he shouted, unsheathing his second Kiba blade and swinging it down. Naruto only just managed to use a Substitution Jutsu before the sword hit him, "Oh! Lucky you!" Raiga shouted with a laugh as he looked around, "But how long do you think you can keep doing that? You can't constantly use a Substitution!"

From where he was hiding, Naruto gritted his teeth, _'He's right,'_ he thought, looking around a corner. He was behind Raiga but knew he couldn't stop him, _'I barely managed to use that Jutsu, if I had hesitated for a split-second longer, then I would be dead'_ He quickly ducked back behind the building as Raiga turned in his direction, _'My best bet would be to try and run back to Kakashi-Sensei, but Raiga might catch me before I get too far. Plus he probably uses long-ranged Jutsu as well'_

"You can't hide forever!" As soon as Naruto heard those words shouted in his direction, he jumped and rolled away as one of Raiga's blades sliced its way through the building he was hiding behind, "Found you!" shouted Raiga as he kept running at Naruto, trying to slash at the boy.

Naruto did his best to dodge, but there were a few close calls as the swords just barely grazed him. He grunted as his back hit the side of a building and he widened his eyes as Raiga had both blades aiming down at him. Pulling out his kunai, he did what he did with Zabuza and concentrated his chakra into his knives and blocked the incoming slashes, _'Looks like all that training is finally paying off,'_ thought Naruto as he tried to push back against Raiga, _'It would usually take me a few seconds longer to use this technique'_

"Oh! I'm impressed!" said Raiga, "That's not a very easy thing to do!" Struggling, Naruto was trying to push Raiga further away, but the man kept pushing back with ease, "You know, these Kiba blades are special for a couple of reasons, one being that they conduct lightning,"

"What!?" stated Naruto as he saw the swords spark with electricity. It was odd but it was as if Raiga had gotten stronger as he pushed Naruto into the wall.

Cracks began to appear on the wall behind Naruto, showing how much force was being used, "Another thing about these blades is that these are the sharpest blades in the world!" shouted Raiga as he raised his right sword and slashed down. The wall behind Naruto blew up as he was launched back, just as Raiga's sword slashed its way through Naruto kunai.

A scream was heard inside the building, making Naruto look up and see a family cowering in the corner. He idly heard Raiga muttering something about a 'lucky bastard', but his ears were ringing as he had hit his head when he fell back. Regaining his senses, Naruto saw that Raiga was stepping into the building, "Get out of here!" he shouted to the fear-stricken family, "GO!" that shout seemed to work as the family all ran out of the house.

"Aw," whined Raiga, kicking Naruto into the wall behind him, "They could have joined our little game!"

Getting up, Naruto picked up the table and threw it at Raiga, who leant to the side and avoided the object. However, what he wasn't expecting was Naruto jumping at him and attacking him with a full on assault. He took a couple of hits because of his surprise but was fast to block and dodge the rest, "I won't let you hurt anyone else!" shouted Naruto.

"I'd like to see you try!" shouted Raiga, actually sounding angry for some reason. He pushed Naruto back and slashed at him, hitting him across the chest, "Got you! You little bastard!" Going over to where Naruto had fallen to the ground, he raised both Kiba Blades and was ready to skewer him, but just as he was about to, 'Naruto' exploded into a cloud of smoke that quickly filled the entire room.

Outside the house, the real Naruto grinned as he made a hand sign, "How do you like my Shadow Clone?!" he shouted with a grin.

Raiga coughed into his arm, smoke filling his lungs. He swung around, not knowing where the blond brat was. "Where the fuck are you?!" he shouted but got no answer. After a minute, the smoke cleared, allowing Raiga to see again. As soon as his eyes adjusted, his eyes widened as he was surrounded by a circle of exploding tags.

Naruto's grin grew as the house exploded, the remains burning to ash. He waited a few seconds to make sure Raiga was dead and after a minute of nothing happening, Naruto sighed with a smile, falling onto his ass. But that smile disappeared when Raiga appeared in front of him with smoke and sparks coming off of him and a look of rage on his face.

The next thing he knew was that he was on the ground, with a deep cut along his chest. Raiga jumped down from the building he was on and landed on the ground, with a foot on Naruto's stomach. As he gasped out in pain, Raiga dug his foot into him even harder, "I have had it," spoke Raiga through gritted teeth, "No more games! It's time for a funeral!" he shouted, raising his sword into the air and causing a lightning strike, of all things, to slam down onto his blade.

Naruto could do nothing as the Kiba Blade's came down, stabbing him in the stomach. It was a burning pain that quickly spread throughout his body but when Raiga pushed all of the lightning into him, he suddenly couldn't feel anything. He could tell his body was hurting, but the pain wasn't there. As quick as it happened, it was over. Raiga pulled the swords out of his stomach and took a step back to admire his work.

With his vision quickly fading, Naruto was forced to watch as Raiga laughed like a madman, with rain beginning to pour down from the sky. For some unknown reason, Raiga just pointed his sword at a random building, making a lightning bolt appear from the sky and destroy the building, burning it to the ground. Screams could be heard as Raiga destroyed any random building in his view, forcing families to run out of their houses.

 _'No...'_ thought Naruto, watching as Raiga killed a man that tried to run away. One after another, people began to die from lightning strikes, any Jutsu that Raiga used, or just from being stabbed and or slashed by his sword's. _'...Stop,'_ thought Naruto. Inside his head, he was fighting to stay alive. Wanting to do something that could help and stop Raiga. But his body refused to move, _'PLEASE!'_

"Who's next?!" shouted Raiga with a grin. Hearing a sniffle, he turned and saw a little girl hiding behind a crate, "Aw, so young,"

Seeing who he was targeting next, Naruto screamed inside his head. He managed to lift a hand, planting it into the ground as he slowly, and painfully, began to raise himself. Blood was pouring out of his wounds and his mouth. His ears were ringing and he could barely see anymore. But he kept getting up despite the pain. Taking a step, he fell down onto his knees before he got back up again, "L-Leave... her alone," he managed to say.

Raiga turned as he heard Naruto's voice, "Wow! I didn't think you were still alive! I'm actually impressed"

Taking another step, Naruto glared at Raiga, "I said... Leave her a-alone," he said between coughs.

"Oh, you want me to leave her alone?" repeated Raiga, before grinning, "Can't do that!"

"NO!" shouted Naruto as he tried to run to the girl but fell over onto the ground. He was forced to watch as lightning appeared from the sky and slam down onto the girl, who was screaming in pain. As quick as it started, it stopped, with the girl lying on the ground, dead.

Naruto just stared at her in horror as Raiga walked up to him, "That was a nice funeral, wasn't it?" he asked the dying Genin. He gave Naruto a swift kick to the side, making Naruto shout out in pain as he coughed up more blood. He was also looking very pale and looked as though he was going to fall unconscious any second. As he was being kicked though, Naruto couldn't take his eyes off of the dead girl's body.

He could feel something snap inside his very being and an explosion of fire erupted from him, throwing Raiga away. The pillar of fire that came from Naruto rocketed into the sky, parting the clouds. Raiga stood back up and he hissed as he felt a few small burn marks on his arms, "What the hell was that?" he muttered. He could hear Naruto scream from within the flames. Did someone use a powerful fire Jutsu on the kid? Or is the kid using a fire Jutsu? Either way, it seemed like the kid was dying in the pillar.

With a grin, he took a stance as he leant forward slightly, holding his swords in a reverse grip behind his back, "Lightning Style: Striking Thunder Jutsu!" he shouted as he swung his swords in front of him, pointing them at Naruto. The swords sparked with electricity as a lightning strike appeared from above, slamming into the blades. At the same time, all of the lightning inside the blades shot out towards Naruto and into the fiery pillar.

But just as the lightning bolt touched the pillar, it disappeared. Thinking that his attack worked and that the brat was dead, Raiga looked towards the 'corpse' but widened his eyes in shock. Instead of seeing a burnt body, he saw Naruto just standing there like nothing happened. He looked fine like nothing had happened. He didn't even have any of the wounds from before. The only thing that did change though, was that Naruto looked pissed.

One thing that did change though, was that Naruto looked pissed. Like the only emotion he held inside of him was rage, "Why the hell aren't you dead yet?!" shouted Raiga, annoyed that the kid was still alive somehow. Instead of answering, Naruto just started to walk towards him, "Oh I don't think so! I'm done playing!" Pointing his swords again, he shouted, "Lightning Style: Lightning Fang!" A bolt of electricity shot to Naruto and the attack hit him. But it either had no effect or he just shrugged the attack off.

Looking closely at the kid, Raiga noticed a few changes. The first thing that stood out was that there was a heat wave coming off him. Even from where he stood, he could feel the heat coming off of him. The second was not so obvious. His eyes were still blue, but his pupils were now slits. What actually concerned Raiga the most, was that Naruto was now growling. Before Raiga knew what was happening, he saw Naruto running at him.

As he ran, Naruto raised a fist and launched it towards Raiga's face. At first, he was going to catch it, but he was shocked when Naruto's fists burst into flames. He didn't know if the flames did anything to the brat, but he was suddenly a lot faster. He barely had time to dodge. Because he missed, the momentum carried and Naruto's fist smashed straight through a house's wall. Seeing that he missed, Naruto growled and spun around, swinging a kick at Raiga that also burst into flames.

Raiga wasn't fast enough and was hit in the chest. The impact managing to break a couple of ribs. Not stopping there, Naruto was already attacking him with a barrage of punches and kicks, all covered in flames. There wasn't any rhythm in his techniques. It was like he was being attacked by an animal.

Seeing an opening, Raiga jumped back and quickly slammed the hilt of his swords together "Ninja Art: Lightning Strike Armour!" Just as Naruto was about to punch him again, Raiga was covered head to toe in electricity. When his fist made contact, Naruto was thrown back.

Roaring in anger, Naruto continued his assault, "Good luck you bastard!" shouted Raiga from within his armour, "Neither Zabuza or Kakashi can break through this without difficulty!" Just as soon as he finished that sentence, Naruto roared again as he kept punching. Raiga tried to fight back but couldn't as he was forced to defend himself, _'Shit, this brat is stronger than he looks!'_ he thought, feeling that his Jutsu was getting weaker by the second.

Suddenly, Naruto just stopped, surprising Raiga. His surprise increased when Naruto grabbed his chest, somehow managing to ignore his Lightning Strike Armour. Then, without warning, Naruto began to roar even louder than before. At first, Raiga thought that his Jutsu was finally having some effect on the brat, but he was proven wrong when Naruto hand suddenly ignited. The amount of power in this attack was staggering, especially when it was at point-blank range. Within seconds, Raiga's Jutsu was destroyed, allowing the fire to attack him.

He screamed in pain as Naruto let go, the force of the attack smashing him along the ground and through a building, which in turn created a large trench. Barely able to stand, Raiga gave himself a quick once-over, seeing that his chest now had a hand-shaped burn mark. Hearing another roar, Raiga looked to see that Naruto had jumped high into the air and was falling towards him. Knowing there wasn't enough time to do anything, Raiga raised his blades to block. Naruto's fists were covered in fire as he slammed them down onto the Kiba Blades, with Raiga grunting from the force of the attack.

Now Raiga was getting worried because he was struggling to defend himself. What worried him the most, was that one of his swords was starting to crack. This had never happened before. He had never heard of any of the Seven Swords breaking, it was unheard of. He knew that he had to get away from this brat, from this monster.

Whatever Naruto was standing on broke apart, causing Naruto to stumble. This was enough for Raiga to push forward, making Naruto stumble back. Pressing forward, he concentrated his chakra and slashed his sword's together as he released his chakra, creating a massive flash of light, blinding Naruto. When his vision finally cleared, Raiga was nowhere to be seen. He roared in anger before running away, searching for the man.

* * *

The last thing that Naruto remembers was Raiga stabbing him in the stomach. Now he was in a sewer and he didn't have any wounds either, which was odd. He could tell that there was something here somewhere in the sewer and whatever it was, it was trying to draw him in. With nothing else to lose, add to the fact he couldn't see a way out, Naruto decided to go deeper into the sewer. He felt like he was walking for hours but at the same time, it felt like he only just started walking. The sewer never changed, it never curved or anything, it just kept going straight.

As he walked he could hear these noises that seemed to appear from all around him. He figured they were coming from the pipes around him and when he pressed his ear to them, he could swear he could hear his own voice. After a little more walking, he finally arrived at a big open room. It was dark and he couldn't even see the other side of the room.

 _'Damn, I wish I had a light or something,'_ he thought, before the room suddenly lit up, allowing him to see again. His eyes didn't even need to adjust, they were just fine. His eyes did widen, though, when he saw a giant cage at the other side of the room with a paper in the middle saying 'SEAL'.

"Where the hell am I?" he muttered to himself. He didn't know if he should be curious or afraid of where he is.

 **"We are in your mind, Kit,"** spoke a deep, menacing voice that seemed to come from all around Naruto. He could have sworn that the room shook when the voice appeared.

Naruto turned around, looking for the source of the voice, "Who said that?!" A light appeared inside the cage, revealing the gigantic beast inside. Stumbling back, Naruto had wide eyes as he spoke, "T-The Nine-Tailed Fox, Kyuubi?!"

Rolling his eyes, Kyuubi said, **"Relax, Kit. I couldn't do anything to you in here unless, for odd some reason, you wanted me to"** Not hearing anything from the kid, the Kyuubi raised a non-existent eyebrow, **"What? Stop staring, you look like more of an idiot than you usually do"**

Somehow managing to only hear the insult, and also managing to forget who he is talking too, Naruto gained a tick mark on his head as he shouted, "Hey! I'm not an idiot! I just... I wasn't expecting this"

 **"What were you expecting? Me trying to kill you the second you got here? Me ranting on about how I should kill you so I could set myself free?"**

At first, Naruto said nothing. But after a few seconds, he nodded his head, "Actually, yeah. That's pretty much what I expected"

Again, Kyuubi rolled his eyes, **"That's why you're an idiot. Especially after the stunt you just pulled outside!"**

"Outside?"

 **"Yes, outside. As I said already, we are in your mind,"** Now Naruto was even more confused than before, **"I know, all this information is hurting your little head"**

Deciding to ignore that insult, Naruto asked, "What's happening outside? I was watching Raiga but that's the last thing I remember"

Waving a hand, or paw in the Kyuubi's case, an image appeared in front of Naruto, showing him his memories of fighting against Raiga, **"You fought well. I was surprised by your idea if trapping Raiga with all of your explosive tags, but it wasn't enough. Raiga's rage and skill with the Kiba Blade's overpowered you"**

"So, I'm dying then," said Naruto with a frown, watching as Raiga stabbed him in the stomach.

 **"Actually no. You're perfectly fine. Well, health wise at least. But something happened,"** said Kyuubi showing Naruto what happened after the girl died, **"My best guess is that you had an extinct bloodline in your DNA that was locked away. Because you were near-death, I tried to heal you. What I don't understand is that I've healed you hundreds of times and this has never happened before,"**

Naruto was staring wide-eyed at the screen before him, "That's my bloodline?" he asked.

Nodding, Kyuubi said, **"I've never seen anything like it. It's incredibly powerful and destructive, but at the same time, it's uncontrollable. There is no telling the potential you possess with this power"**

Naruto stayed silent as he processed what he was being told. Seeing how destructive he was, it was terrifying. But at the same time, it was incredible. He was easily able to fight against Raiga with it. The power reminded him of Tazuna's story, about the man who founded the Wave village, _'What were they called again?'_ Naruto thought to himself before saying, "Dragon Slayers"

 **"What? Dragon Slayers?"** repeated Kyuubi, **"Isn't that a part of the story that the Bridge Builder told you?"** Seeing Naruto nod, he made a humming sound, **"If I remember the conversation right, then there were different tribesmen that could use different elements. Bit odd how he told you the story and then you get an ability like it"**

"Maybe it's the village," said Naruto with an idea, "Maybe I unlocked the ability because this was where the last Dragon Slayer lived"

 **"It is possible. Anyway, you fell unconscious after you fight. But there is something else. When you used your new abilities, you never used any of your chakra, or mines for that matter"**

Furrowing his brow, Naruto asked, "I didn't use any chakra? How is that possible?"

 **"I'll have to look more into it. Your team just found you and your sensei is trying to wake you up. Whatever this ability is doing, it's changing you. Just be prepared for anything, alright?"**

"I will. Thank's Kyuubi," said Naruto, genuinely thanking the Tailed Beast before fading away.

* * *

Opening his eyes, Naruto saw that he was back in Tazuna's house. From what he could tell as he sat up, he only had his underwear on and that there was a cold towel on his head. It felt like his insides were on fire and that the room was spinning. It took a lot for him to not lie back down in pain. After a couple of minutes of trying and failing, he finally managed to stand up, which made him feel a hundred times worse. He could hear people downstairs, probably in the kitchen. He didn't know what time it was so it could have been breakfast or dinner for all he knew.

He didn't know how long it took him to get down the stairs but he had a feeling that it was longer than a few minutes. But as he reached the last step, he stumbled and fell to the ground with a loud crash. Now he felt a thousand times worse instead of a hundred. Plus, the loud crash he accidently caused drew the attention of the rest of the house.

Kakashi and Tsunami were the first to reach him, "Did you go on a nice trip there, Naruto?" joked Kakashi.

"S-Screw... you" groaned out Naruto, making the Jonin chuckle a little as he helped him up, "What h-happened?"

"We found you passed out in the village," explained Kakashi as they both walked upstairs, followed by Tsunami, "Your clone ran all the way here to let me know about Raiga, but when we got to you, Raiga was gone. Although no one knows how the village caught on fire"

Naruto gave a weak laugh, "Yeah, turns out I a-accidentally unlocked a bloodline... I somehow control fire now"

"... You're being serious, aren't you?" questioned Kakashi, not knowing why he was so surprised. Naruto alway's did something unexpected and near-impossible. Seeing Naruto nod, he sighed, "Of course you manage to unlock a bloodline. This probably explains your high fever"

Setting Naruto down back in his bed, Tsunami touched his forehead with the back of her palm, "It hasn't gone down. If anything it's gotten worse," standing up she said, "I'll go and get another cold towel" With that, she left Kakashi alone with Naruto.

"Kyuubi did say that my bloodline is changing me," muttered Naruto without thinking.

Widening his lone eye in shock, Kakashi asked, "Naruto, did you say Kyuubi?" Seeing a nod, he continued, "You spoke to the Nine-Tailed Fox?" Another nod, "The same Nine-Tailed Fox that tried to destroy our entire village years ago?" At another nod, he sighed, "And you talked to it?"

"Yeah, I was expecting it to try and kill me or something," admitted Naruto, "But it helped me instead. Told me that I had an extinct bloodline in my DNA and that I unlocked it because I was near-death"

Rubbing his chin in thought, Kakashi said, "That is possible. Most bloodlines are usually unlocked in similar conditions while others are normally trained." Realising that he was getting off topic, Kakashi shook his head, "Naruto, be careful if you talk to Kyuubi again. It might be trying to trick you. If you do talk to it again, then please let me know as soon as possible,"

Naruto had to admit, from everything he heard throughout his life about the Kyuubi, he should be suspicious. But for some reason, he just felt like he could trust the giant fox and he didn't know why. "Fine," relented Naruto, before suddenly feeling tired. Falling down the stairs and walking about must have really done a number on him.

"Get some rest," advised Kakashi as he began to leave, "... And try not to burn the house down in your sleep"

"Why do I get the feeling that there's going to be a lot of fire jokes?" questioned Naruto as Kakashi closed the door.

* * *

 **-With Raiga-**

"You fucking idiot!" shouted Zabuza, just after Raiga returned and told him what happened, "Not only did you let that brat live but he also managed to damage your sword!

"He had a weird bloodline or Jutsu or something," replied Raiga, as if it was nothing. "Probably, just a fluke. Won't happen again"

Zabuza growled at how non-caring Raiga was. Hearing about the Kiba Blade's breaking both intrigued him and angered him. It angered him because Raiga wasn't taking it seriously and it also intrigued him because a Genin managed to gain enough power to overwhelm Raiga. It almost made him want to fight the brat.

But the power made him curious. He had never heard of a bloodline that allowed the user to control fire to that level. Raiga also said that the brat acted differently, like an animal. This told him that the amount of power was too much for the brat's mind and shut it down, forcing him to concentrate on his instincts.

Breaking away from his thoughts, he looked around, only to see that Raiga was missing. Growling again, Zabuza walked away and shouted, "Haku! Where the hell are you?!"

* * *

 **-Tazuna's House-**

During the middle of the night, almost everyone was asleep. Kakashi was still awake, reading his little orange book as he giggled quietly. Everyone else was asleep peacefully, except for Naruto, who was tossing and turning in his sleep.

What no one knew, not even Naruto or the Kyuubi was that a glowing red circle would appear around Naruto and then disappear within seconds.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **Funny how I said I would update this story once a month at least, especially when it has been four months. I'm not going to blame writer's block or anything like that. It was my own fault. I just concentrated on games and movies, writing other stories that I still haven't finished, and a few other things here and there.**

 **This chapter is a little shorter than the other and I know Naruto got his power a little earlier than you probably expected, but I couldn't come up with anything to prolong it.**

 **Don't expect a chapter soon as I will no doubt do the same as last time.**

 **Thank you for reading.**


	3. Learning to Control

**Author's Note:**

Apologies for the long delay but here is the story! Now, before you read, I would like to explain a few things.

I have noticed that I accidentally changed Naruto's personality slightly over the past two chapters. One minute he's the regular that we all know and then he's suddenly a battle-hardened ninja. Not exactly but you know what I mean. This chapter should help a little with that and I will explain it a bit better in the Author's Note after the story.

In case you have forgotten, this is a Sasuke/Sakura/Council bashing fic. In my opinion, there aren't many of these types of fics around anymore. I guess this is because of people learning to write better and whatnot. I am only mentioning this in case people have forgotten what this fix is about and mention how unoriginal and cliche that I did that. MY STORY SO GET OVER IT!

I have also decided on the pairing. Majority of you voted yes for a harem but a couple of reviewers and people that have PM me have actually given me good advice and I have decided to keep it Naruto/Kin only.

Anyway, without further ado, enjoy the story!

* * *

"Talking"

 _'Thinking'_

 _"Talking Mentally"_

 **"Demon/Monster Talking"**

* * *

 **Story Begin**

* * *

It has been a few day's now since Naruto woke up from his fever. It hasn't gone down since then but it hasn't gotten any worse either. Right now, he was sitting against a tree as Sasuke and Sakura were running up and down a tree. From what he could see, it looked as though Sasuke gained a couple of meters up the tree he was on and Sakura managed to last another two minutes before she needed a break. Kakashi was off somewhere, doing surveillance. Apparently, the Jonin was almost fully healed but he still wasn't a hundred percent, not even close to being ready to fight against Zabuza and/or Raiga.

After another hour of watching his teammates train, Naruto watched as they left to go guard Tazuna as he continued to build his bridge, leaving him alone. He would start training, but he wasn't allowed. Anytime he did, either Kakashi or Tsunami would run and stop him. He was pretty sure that Kakashi had a clone watching him. He shivered at how creepy that thought was.

Glancing at his hand, his mind wandered back to when he used his bloodline. For the past few day's he had gotten a few flashes of his fight with Raiga and he could even remember the feeling of using his ability. He tried to summon that same power, but couldn't figure out how to. It was incredibly frustrating, to say the least.

 **"It's obvious your emotions are key to activating your abilities,"** said Kyuubi from within Naruto's mind.

Ever since Naruto first talked to the Kyuubi they had somehow opened a telepathic link that allows them to talk. It was weird at first but he was quick to get used to it. Of course, Kakashi knows about it, and when they get back to Konoha, the Third Hokage will be told as well. That's going to be a fun talk when that happens.

 _"Yeah, I already knew that,"_ thought Naruto, _"But this would be easier if I was healed"_

Kyuubi rolled its eyes and said, **"And I told you already, I have tried to heal you but your bloodline is stopping me. Every time my chakra tries to heal, it's like your bloodline burns it away"**

 _"But my fever hasn't gotten worse. Isn't that a good sign?"_

 **"I don't know,"** replied the Kyuubi, **"It could mean anything for all we know. But from what I can tell, it won't last much longer"**

Naruto sighed in relief. He was hoping that the Kyuubi was right because he had never been sick before in his life, so he had never experienced illnesses before. He truly felt sorry for people who get ill with the cold or fevers now. _"Is there another way I could train with my bloodline?"_

The Kyuubi thought about that for a second. While it was obvious that his bloodline was activated by his emotions, but it isn't enough to summon that same power. But then, it might actually the illness that is stopping Naruto from using his ability, and if that was the case then there was nothing they could do until he was fully healed. But then there was no telling how long that could be. For all it knew, it was probably wrong about Naruto's illness subsiding.

 **"Try summoning a Shadow Clone,"** suggested Kyuubi, getting a confused look from Naruto, **"Ever since you unlocked your bloodline you haven't used your chakra once"**

Now understanding, Naruto gave a nod as he stood, forming a hand sign, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he shouted and after a few seconds, nothing happened, "Oh... that can't be good," he muttered before trying again with the same results, "Why the hell isn't it working?!" he shouted before, finally, a puff of smoke appeared, "Oh, finally," he said before freezing in shock at the incredibly sick looking clone that appeared to be melting.

He suddenly jumped as he heard a roar of laughter coming from his mind, **"HAHAHA! You control is SHOT! You're as bad as you were during the academy!"** the Kyuubi shouted as he laughed.

Naruto had a tick mark appear as he heard that, annoyed at how terrible he was at the Academy. It was still a sore subject for him, "Just great. It took me months to get my chakra control to a good enough level," he muttered as the 'dead' clone vanished. Scratching the back of his head, he stood there for a minute as he heard Kyuubi laughing. When he heard the laughter die down, he asked, _"Are you done?"_

 **"For now,"** replied the Kyuubi, much to Naruto's annoyance, **"Anyway, as I said, your control is shot. You'll have to start from the beginning to get that control back"**

"CRAP!" shouted Naruto as soon as he heard that, "The Leaf Exercise is the worst!"

 **"Just shut up and do it, or are you scared of a little leaf?"** teased Kyuubi.

Naruto growled at that but chose not to say anything. Instead, he walked over to a tree and picked up a healthy looking leaf. After glaring at it for a few seconds, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, doing everything in his power to concentrate his chakra to his forehead. Thinking he had it, he opened his eyes and placed the leaf on his head. It stuck for a few seconds which made Naruto smile.

Until it suddenly burst into flames and disintegrated within seconds.

Once again, the Kyuubi roared with laughter, much to Naruto's chagrin. Ignoring the Fox he tried again but the leaf burned every time, "Kami damn it! Why the hell is it alway's burning?!" Naruto shouted, getting angry at the task. Blinking, he realised why and smacked his own head, "My bloodline, of course"

"You know," said a voice that made Naruto jump, "Shouting in anger isn't going to help." Turning, Naruto saw that it was Kakashi, who was sitting on top of a branch as he read his little book.

"Then do you have any suggestions that might help?" Naruto asked, still annoyed at the leaves.

Kakashi gave a small hum as he jumped down to the ground, "Well when you were unconscious because you unlocked your bloodline, I looked you over with my Sharingan. From what I could tell, you have three separate energy sources," he said, to which Naruto nodded as he already knew about it from the Kyuubi, "At the time, I just thought it was the Kyuubi and that Raiga had left traces of his chakra in you from one of his Jutsu, but now that I know it's your bloodline, I have an idea to help you"

"Really? What is it?" asked Naruto.

Giving an eye-smile, Kakashi said, "Meditation"

"Huh?"

"Meditation," repeated Kakashi, "If you meditate then you may be able to separate your bloodline from your chakra and restore your control"

Naruto thought about it for a second. He had never meditated before, or even consider it for that matter, mostly because it sounded boring to him. But he was willing to learn if it will help. "Okay," he said after a few seconds, "What do I need to do?"

Kakashi was once again surprised. He never thought that Naruto would accept meditation, a technique that, by its very nature, was the exact opposite of Naruto. he chuckled at how his student continues to surprise him, "All you have to do is sit, close your eyes, and clear your mind. Once it's clear you will be able to separate your energies, theoretically," he said, whispering that last part to himself. No one had ever had three separate energy sources before, so they might as well do anything and everything.

"How am I suppose to clear my mind?" asked Naruto.

"For you, I'm sure it will be very difficult," joked Kakashi, getting a tick-mark to appear on top of Naruto's head, "It's different for everyone. Most people think of anything. You could think of an object and try to picture every little detail about it, or you could focus on a memory that you're fond of and lose yourself as you remember"

Sitting down and crossing his legs, Naruto tried to think of an object but nothing stood out to him. There was his headband but there wasn't much to it and he felt as though it wasn't enough. Almost all of his memories were practically nightmares and he would rather forget them, but there were a few that were good. One memory stood out to him and he focused on it. Kakashi, seeing Naruto close his eyes, figured he found something to focus on, so he went back inside to read his book and leave Naruto in peace.

* * *

 **-Flashback-**

 _"I'm sorry, Naruto, but I have to fail you," said Iruka with a sad look on his face. Before him stood Naruto who was tasked with creating a regular clone, but because of his massive chakra supply, he was only able to create a very sick looking clone._

 _Naruto stayed silent, not knowing what to say at his failure, "Oh, come on," said Mizuki, Iruka's assistant, "He managed to use the other Jutsu, plus he has potential, I'm sure you could just pass him"_

 _Iruka did think about it, but frowned, "I can't, I'm sorry" he said as he looked at Naruto, "I want nothing more than to pass you, but if you aren't ready or even properly trained then you could die in the field. I'm doing this to protect you, Naruto." As is he didn't hear it, Naruto just ran out of the room, "Wait! Naruto!"_

* * *

 _Sitting down on a swing just outside of the Academy was Naruto, staring at all the children receiving praise from their parent's. He gave up on wondering what it would be like to have parent's, but it still didn't stop the jealousy boiling inside of him. He could see the hatred in the adult's eyes, all staring at him. He wished he could at least understand why they hated him, but no one would give him any answers._

 _As he sat there, thinking of nothing but his failure, someone appeared behind him, "Hey, Naruto." Turning at the sound of the voice, Naruto was a little surprised to see Mizuki._

 _"Sensei? What are you doing here?" asked Naruto in confusion._

 _"Well, I felt sorry that you weren't able to pass," replied Mizuki with a sad tone of voice, "Are you going to be alright?"_

 _Glancing away with a frown, Naruto said, "I'll be fine," then he gave his sensei an obviously fake grin, "I can alway's try again next year!"_

 _Now Mizuki frowned, causing Naruto to stop grinning, "Naruto, I'm sorry, but that was your last chance._

 _Naruto's eyes widened at that, "W-What?"_

 _"You have already tried the exam three times, and each time you failed," explained Mizuki, "You're not allowed to try again." Naruto stared in shock at Mizuki, not expecting that answer. His eyes watered slightly but he quickly wiped them, refusing to let them fall._

 _"...I see," Naruto said after a few seconds of silence, "Thank you for letting me know, sensei, I mean, Mizuki," he said in a quiet tone. A few more seconds of silence and he just stood up._

 _As he was about to walk away, Mizuki spoke up again, "I shouldn't tell you this, but there is a special case." Hearing this, Naruto stopped in his tracks, "It technically counts as an unofficial graduation, but it might be the only way for you to become a Genin"_

 _Naruto didn't know what to say. Five minutes ago, he was a failure, and now here he was, being told that he still had a chance to become a Shinobi, "H-How?"_

 _Mizuki grinned, but what Naruto saw and didn't pay it much mind was an evil glint in the teacher's eyes, "All you have to do is..."_

* * *

 _Later that night, Naruto was inside the Hokage Office, or to be more precise, crawling around in the vents. He was crawling around, trying to get to the Hokage's office. He had been in the vents before so he knew the way like the back of his hand. The only issue he had was that he barely fit inside the vents anymore and they were a lot dustier than he remembered. It took everything he had not to sneeze and give away his position._

 _He wondered how the ANBU or the Jonin never knew about him being the vents. It's not like they knew he was there and they just let him do whatever he wanted, right? Nah, it can't be._

 _Moving, he froze when the vent suddenly made a whiny noise like it was struggling beneath his weight. Seeing a grate right next to him, he literally turned pale as he saw the ANBU Neko walk past and stop moving,_ 'Oh crap! Please don't sense me, please don't sense me, PLEASE DON'T SENSE ME!' _he thought in fear. He almost screamed when it looked like Neko was about to draw her sword, but nearly wept with joy when she decided to walk away._

 _Making his way through the vent, Naruto finally arrived at the Hokage's Office. Looking through the grate, he saw the Hokage, Sarutobi, sitting at his desk as he did his paperwork. Naruto nearly choked as a puff of tobacco smoke entered the vent. He had forgotten that the old man smoked a pipe. Waiting for a few more minutes, so that the Hokage's assistant would leave, Naruto jumped out of the vent. He had hoped to see surprise and/or shock from the old man, but instead saw a look that was more amused than anything, "Hello, Naruto," greeted Sarutobi, "So, why were you climbing through my vents?"_

 _"Uh, no reason," replied Naruto, with a suspicious looking grin on his face, "Just thought I'd come visit you"_

 _The Hokage signalled for the ANBU hiding in the shadow's to leave."Why are you really here?" asked Sarutobi, not believing the boy he considered a grandson._

 _Knowing it was impossible to lie to the man, Naruto gave a defeated sigh just as an idea formed in his mind, "Fine. I wanted to show you this awesome Jutsu I learned"_

 _Naruto could clearly see the suspicion in the Hokage's eyes but, after a few seconds, the man smiled, "Well, go on then. As long as it doesn't destroy anything then it should be fine"_

 _Grinning ear to ear, Naruto made a single hand sign and shouted, "Transform!"_

 _A large cloud of smoke filled the entire room, blocking the Hokage's sight. What he saw next caused blood to explode from his nose and for it to launch him back and smash his head against the window behind him, knocking him out cold. The cause was Naruto, turning himself into a naked girl with pigtails. Turning himself back to normal, Naruto fell to the ground laughing, "I knew you were a pervert!" he shouted, "You always read that little orange book!"_

 _Deciding not to waste any more time, Naruto ransacked the room. You could hear books hit the ground and furniture being moved but, for some reason, no one checked in on them. After a few minutes, Naruto found a seal beneath the Hokage's desk,_ 'Now, if I remember right,' _he thought to himself,_ 'Seals like are either used with chakra or blood, sometimes both'

 _Putting his hand on the seal he concentrated his chakra, but nothing happened. He gave a frown of annoyance before biting down on his thumb enough to break the skin. Smearing his blood onto the seal, Naruto once again concentrated his chakra causing a small puff of smoke to appear. Grinning at his success, Naruto was happy to see an overly large scroll sit on the desk in front of him. The moment he saw it, he was tempted to open it just to see what kind of Jutsu were contained inside. But, looking at the clock, he realised he didn't have the time so he picked up the scroll and jumped out of the window, jumping from rooftop to rooftop._

 _After a little while, Naruto finally found himself in the clearing that he and Mizuki agreed to meet at. Panting, he looked around for the Chunin but couldn't see him,_ 'I must be early,' _he thought as he sat down on the grass, the large scroll at his side. After a few minutes, he suddenly widened his eyes and stood, "AH! What am I doing?! I have a scroll with me full of amazing Jutsu!" he shouted to himself as he unrolled the scroll._

 _There were a lot of Jutsu inside of the scroll that he had never even heard of or even imagined. Then again, these were all forbidden so no wonder he had never heard of them. That and he was still a civilian. Reading through the scroll, he realised that a lot of them were complicated and would take a lot of training to even attempt them correctly. But while they complicated, they were also intriguing. He really wanted to learn most of the Jutsu he was reading._

 _One particular Jutsu caught his eye, "'Shadow Clone Jutsu'," he muttered. Clones weren't exactly his strong suit but maybe he could do this one? Shrugging, he decided to try it just to see. Looking at the Jutsu, he skimmed through the scroll and found the instructions. Quickly practising the hand signs, he was ready to try within minutes. The first time he tried, he couldn't even produce a single clone, not even on the second or even third try. He finally managed to create one on his seventh try but it was another one of his dead-looking clones that he hated._

 _It took over an hour of trial and error but, eventually, he managed to make a single clone that was perfect in his opinion. Not a single flaw anywhere. "YES!" screamed Naruto in happiness as he and his clone jumped around in excitement. Dispelling the clone, Naruto performed the Jutsu again to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Seeing another clone, they both jumped around in happiness again before that clone was dispelled._

 _Going back to the scroll, hoping he might learn something else before Mizuki arrived, Naruto saw something added to the Shadow Clone Jutsu. It was in big black writing and he wondered how he missed it. Shrugging his shoulders, he began to read it as it could be advice or something._ "'Warning: This Jutsu requires high levels of chakra. If the user does not have enough chakra then creating a single clone may cause immediate chakra exhaustion and, in rare cases, death.'" _he read as a sweat drop formed on his head. He was silent as he stared at the page for a full minute, "... I kind of wished I read that before I even attempted that Jutsu," he said, realising that if he didn't have enough chakra then he could have died._

 _"NARUTO!"_

 _The new voice scared Naruto as he jumped and fell over in shock. Looking towards where the noise came from, Naruto was surprised to see his old teacher, Iruka, coming out from the forest with a look of annoyance, "Sensei? What are you doing here?" he asked._

 _"Me?!" shouted Iruka, his head looking as though it grew larger, "What are YOU doing?! Breaking into the Hokage's Office and stealing the Forbidden Scroll?! Do you even realise what you did?!"_

 _Blinking in confusion, Naruto tilted his head slightly, "What do you mean? This was the secret graduation mission right?" he asked with a grin, "I learned this awesome Jutsu from the scroll! That means I pass, right?"_

 _As he was about to shout, Iruka stopped and saw that Naruto was out of breath. He actually looked as though he had been training hard. But that wasn't what caught his attention, "Wait, did you say secret test?"_

 _"Yeah," said Naruto, rolling up the scroll, "Mizuki-sensei told me that for me to pass I have to get this scroll from the Hokage and bring it here. But I think Mizuki-Sensei is late." He then grinned as he put his hands behind his head, "I had enough time to learn a really cool Jutsu!"_

 _Iruka scrunched his face up in confusion, making Naruto wonder why. But when he saw his sensei's eyes widen, he knew something was wrong. Before he could ask, Iruka shouted, "Get down!" and then pushed him out of the way, just as a rain of kunai flew from the bushes in his direction. As soon as he landed, Naruto saw the kunai stab and slash their way past his teacher, embedding themselves into his body and leaving cuts all over his skin._

 _"S-Sensei?" stuttered Naruto, not expecting the sudden attack._

 _Everything was quick to go silent, a part from Iruka's laboured breathing. But that silence was broken when they both heard someone clapping in a deliberate and slow manner. "I guess I should have expected you to take the attack for the brat," said a familiar voice, filled with malice._

 _Stepping out from the shadows at the top of a tree was someone that shocked both Naruto and Iruka. "Mizuki-Sensei?" questioned Naruto, shocked to see that one of his own teachers attack the other like that._

 _After staring at Iruka for a few seconds, Mizuki turned his eyes to him, "Ah, Naruto, I see you managed to get the scroll, good job," he said before grinning, "Now, hand it over so I can pass you"_

 _"No! Don't do it, Naruto!" shouted Iruka, pulling a kunai out of his arm, "That scroll contains forbidden Jutsu that could put our village in danger!"_

 _"Don't listen to him," Mizuki said, crouching on the branch, "Don't forget that you need to give me the scroll so that you can become a Genin"_

 _"Naruto! Mizuki is trying to trick you!"_

 _As he held the scroll in his hands, Naruto didn't know who to believe. Seeing that he might not win him over, Mizuki grinned, "Tell you what, Naruto. If you give me the scroll, then I will tell you a secret that the village knows about you"_

 _This caught Naruto's attention, "Secret?" he repeated, "What secret?"_

 _As if it was possible, Mizuki's grin grew even wider, "The secret is the reason why the entire village hates you"_

 _Naruto's eyes widened when he heard this. For as long as he could remember, he wanted to know why the village hated him, why they tormented his life, why he got ignored and why he got all the beatings. The answer would finally be given to him if he handed the scroll over. "You'll tell me?" Naruto asked in a quiet voice._

 _"No," said Iruka, shaking his head, "Not this, Mizuki, don't do this! It's an S-Class secret! He's not ready!"_

 _"Please," Naruto begged, "Please tell me!"_

 _"Well, since you begged," Mizuki said, ignoring Iruka's pleads to stop, "The reason why everyone hated you, why every adult threw rocks and rotten food at you, why you would get weekly beatings from a mob, is because of what happened fourteen years ago, on the day that the Kyuubi attacked, on the day you were born"_

 _Iruka threw a kunai at Mizuki, who easily grabbed it from the air, "Naruto, don't listen to him! Just run away!"_

 _"The Fourth Hokage didn't kill the Kyuubi," revealed Mizuki, "He sealed it away, into a container"_

 _Naruto furrowed his brow, confusion written all over his face, "What does that have to do with me?"_

 _"Sealing the Kyuubi into a scroll or item was impossible, there was too much raw chakra that would destroy the container," Mizuki continued, "The only thing that could contain that kind of power was a newborn child. But that infant died the moment the chakra entered its system, allowing the Kyuubi to take over, wearing that child's skin!"_

 _"I... I don't understand!"_

 _"That thing wearing the skin of a dead child is you! You are the one that tried to destroy the village and slaughter its people! You are the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox!" Mizuki shouted, laughing in an evil manner. The second he finished telling Naruto that he was the Kyuubi, Mizuki took one of his large shurikens and threw it with all his might, "DIE DEMON!"_

 _Iruka tried to move, but the kunai in his legs prevented that from happening. So he was forced to watch as the shuriken got closer and closer to Naruto with each second that passed. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see the boy he considered a brother to die. He flinched, hearing sharp metal slice its way through something hard._

 _"That had to be the worst throw, ever, of all time!" shouted Naruto's voice from above. Opening his eyes, all Iruka could see was the shuriken embedded in a shattered log, right where Naruto was standing. "All it took was a simple Substitution Jutsu!"_

 _"What?!" shouted Mizuki._

 _Naruto sat down on the branch, his legs hanging down the sides, "You are a Chunin, right?" Naruto asked in amusement, "Cause if you are, then you should probably act like one!"_

 _"Tough talk coming from a freak like you!" shouted Mizuki, running up the tree that Naruto was on._

 _Acting lazily, Naruto leaned back and swung around the branch he sat on, easily avoiding Mizuki's attack the second he ran up the tree, "Wow! You almost caught me there! If only you were a little bit faster," Naruto said deliberately annoying Mizuki._

 _"Shut up!"_

 _Iruka was still in the same place, looking shocked as he watched Naruto jump from tree to tree and easily avoid Mizuki. A few more jumps later and Naruto yawned, "You know what? This is boring," he said as he landed on a branch. This time when Mizuki got close enough, he didn't try to avoid it, instead, he waited when the man lunged at him._

 _"I've got you!" Mizuki shouted with a maniacal look in his eyes._

 _All Naruto did was smile before he punched Mizuki in the face, causing the man to fall and hit the ground. The second he landed, Naruto appeared and drove his feet into Mizuki's gut. "That was disappointing," Naruto muttered, walking over the Iruka._

 _"H-How?" Iruka stuttered._

 _"I've had some training on the side," Naruto explained, helping the teacher take a few kunai out, "I've been holding back all this time but I'm actually Chunin in level of power"_

 _Suddenly looking guilty, Iruka said, "Naruto, listen..."_

 _"If it's about the Kyuubi then don't worry about it," replied the blond, "I've known for a few years now. Didn't help that when Mizuki was speaking, he brought back a few sensitive memories"_

 _Hearing someone coughing, Naruto turned and saw Mizuki trying to stand. "You think this is over," the man said, holding his chest in pain, "I will kill you!"_

 _"You know what?" said Naruto, turning around, "I know a few guy's that will deal with you." Making a hand sign, he shouted, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" and then ten more Naruto's appeared right in front of Mizuki, "Have fun"_

 _The next ten minutes were filled with Mizuki shouting in pain and profanity as he was beaten into unconsciousness._

 _"I cannot tell you how that felt," said Naruto as he spoke to Iruka and the Hokage, who just arrived with his ANBU escort. "After all this time, watching him sabotage my class work and how I had to watch him force a smile at me"_

 _Iruka shook his head, "Wait, you both knew?"_

 _"I knew he hated Naruto but I didn't know about this," replied Sarutobi, "I've known since the minute I gave the class welcoming speech five years ago. Mizuki kept glaring at Naruto whenever either of us weren't looking. He tried to hide it but I'm wiser than I look"_

 _"That I don't doubt," replied Iruka, with Naruto nodding. Iruka then turned to Naruto, "Then I guess you earned this"_

 _Naruto then watched as Iruka took off his headband and hand it to him, "Are you sure?"_

 _"I am," he replied with a proud look, "I want you to have it"_

 _Staring at the headband for a second, Naruto slowly took off his goggles before placing it on his head, grinning while he did so._

* * *

 **-Flashback End-**

Slowly opening his eyes, Naruto let the memories fill his body with every emotion he felt that night. He could even feel the slight weight of the headband on his head as if it was reminding that he was still a Genin. Then the memories of when he unlocked his bloodline came back, bringing back the feeling he had as well. Looking at his hand, he could see a small flame appear, barely the size of his palm. It grew bigger and bigger until it covered his entire fist.

"Wow," Naruto whispered as he stared at the flame, mesmerized by it. He blinked at that thought, "I'm becoming a damn pyromaniac, aren't I?"

"Probably," said Kakashi from behind Naruto, scaring the blond a little. Kakashi then examined the flame for a moment, "Interesting. Even without my Sharingan, I can tell that it doesn't use chakra"

"It doesn't even burn me," Naruto said, managing to create flames for his other hand, "This is harder than I thought"

Putting his hand near the flame, Kakashi could feel the intense heat coming from them, "It will get easier the more you practice"

Naruto began to struggle as the flames got smaller and smaller. When he looked at his student, Kakashi could see the sweat dripping down Naruto's head. "Can't... hold it... any longer," Naruto managed to say just as the flames in his hands disappeared.

"Yeah, you definitely need practice," joked Kakashi before seeing Naruto look a little paler than usual, "And that probably took a lot more out of you than you thought"

"I'm fine," Naruto said, trying to stand. This only resulted in him falling over and he would have hit the ground if it wasn't for Kakashi catching him. Steadying the boy, Kakashi put a leaf in his hand, "Now try again"

Breathing slowly, Naruto took the leaf from Kakashi's hand and slowly placed it on his forehead. He held it there for a few seconds as he closed his eyes, hoping that it will stick instead of burn. Taking a deep breath, he let go of the leaf and concentrated his chakra, waiting for the leaf to suddenly combust. But it never happened. Opening his eyes, Naruto could see part of the leaf still on his head, causing him to smile.

An hour later and Naruto was back in the house. With Kakashi's help, he had managed to create a couple of clones but that was all that his control would allow him. Hopefully, if his fever wasn't as strong tomorrow, then he was planning on trying the Tree Climbing Excercise. While not all of his chakra control was gone, he still needed an idea of where it was at now.

Sasuke and Sakura were still with Tazuna at the bridge and they wouldn't be back for a few more hours. Tsunami was out with Inari, buying groceries and what not. Kakashi left for the bridge to see how everything was going, leaving Naruto all alone in the house. He had to be honest, while he was known to be hyperactive, being alone and in a quiet area was quite peaceful.

"I AM SO BORED!"

And boring, apparently.

Naruto was splayed out on the couch, doing nothing as he stared at the ceiling. He couldn't train, he couldn't help guard Tazuna. He could try and go out but if Tsunami sees him then she wouldn't be happy. Standing up, albeit, with a little difficulty as he was tired, Naruto walked towards the door. _'Maybe some fresh air from a walk will help me,'_ he thought as he left the building, _'It's better than just laying around doing nothing.'_

As he walked about, Naruto realised he was more tired than he thought as there were times when he had to lean against a few trees to keep his balance. Looking up at the sky through the tree leaves, Naruto frowned. It probably would have been a beautiful day if it wasn't for all the gloomy mist blocking the sun.

As he walked past all the trees, slightly enjoying the fresh air, a sudden headache appeared. It was only a small one, like a slight pulsing sensation inside the back of his skull. Deciding to ignore it, for now, he kept walking. But with each step he took, the more the headache grew and the pain became more intense.

Having to lean against a tree, Naruto grabbed his head as he hissed in pain. As he tried to move, he stumbled and fell over, blacking out before he hit the ground.

* * *

Zabuza grunted as he went through his usual training. Even though he was mostly healed, he could still feel that he was sluggish and that he was tiring a lot faster. He looked around as he caught his breath, thankful to be alone. Haku, who usually never leaves his side unless told too, was currently out and getting more herbs for medicine. Raiga was, thankfully, nowhere to be seen.

It still didn't make any sense to him, why Raiga was here. The man was the type of person to keep moving, especially after defecting from the Mist Village. The fact that he went out of his way just to go to the Wave Village to see him was completely out of character. While Raiga was unpredictable, he did have goals in mind, and he did whatever it took to get to that goal.

But it was that goal that mostly worried him, as it could have been anything. Now that he thought about it, he didn't even know why Raiga defected. The other members defected either for their own reasons or because of the Fourth Mizukage's death. He himself left because of the failed assassination attempt on the Fourth Mizukage.

"Ah, there you are Zabuza," said a voice that Zabuza knew and hated. Turning around, he saw his employer, Gato, standing there with a look of absolute arrogance as he was flanked by his two guards. "I've been looking for you"

"What the hell do you want?" Zabuza demanded, not caring that he was talking to the man that pay's him.

Gato frowned at how the man spoke to him. "I just thought I'd come and see how you were doing," he said in a happy tone that was laced with sarcasm. "I can see that you are recuperating, which is good considering that I am not paying you to sit around as that bastard bridge builder is still building!" he shouted at the end, his face visibly turning red. After a second or two, the small businessmen sighed, "Good thing I hired that Raiga, he at least seems capable to finish the job"

"You hired Raiga?" questioned Zabuza, eyes narrowing.

"While his methods are... extreme, he is powerful. He didn't even care about the payment," explained Gato, chuckling a little, "He didn't even want the job until I offered him the people of the village. He seemed excited to give them all a big funeral"

 _'So he's here just to kill all the villagers?'_ thought Zabuza as he turned around, shaking his head with a sigh. "I will be at full strength in two days at the most. That is when you will have your bridge builder killed"

Gato turned to leave before he turned his head slightly and glared at Zabuza. "He'd better die, or else"

Zabuza watched as Gato's two guards draw their swords. They actually thought they could kill him? The Demon of the Hidden Mist? The thought almost made him laugh. "The first chance I get, I am going to slice you both into pieces."

* * *

When Naruto woke up, he was met by a face of a girl that made him blush slightly. He was lost for words as he continued to stare, not even hearing what she said. "Uh... sorry, could you say that again?" he asked, getting the girl to laugh a little.

"I said, 'if you continue to sleep outside, you will catch a cold'," he repeated as Naruto sat up. "My name is Haku Yuki"

Rubbing the back of his head, Naruto introduced himself, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He didn't know who this person was or if he could trust her, so he wasn't going to say anything about where he is from.

"I see that you are a Shinobi from Konoha," he said, making Naruto twitch a little.

It was the headband with the leaf insignia on it, he had forgotten about it. At that moment he just wanted to slam his head into a tree. That thought made him realise something. "I feel... better?" he muttered to himself as he looked at his hands as if they held the answer. His fever, while still present, wasn't as strong as it was, allowing Naruto to feel better.

Hearing what the blond said, Haku said, "Were you injured or ill?"

He nodded, "I had a fever, I guess sleeping outside must have cooled me down"

Haku agreed even though he knew the truth. While Naruto was still asleep, Haku saw that the boy was breathing heavily and was sweating. Checking him over, Haku nearly burned his hand when he checked Naruto's temperature. While he did feel as though he should kill the boy, he decided against it and instead helped. He used his bloodline and encased his hand in ice, placing it on Naruto's forehead. What shocked him though, was the hiss and steam as the ice on his hand was quickly melting at Naruto's touch. A few more tries though seemed to help as the boy awoken.

Naruto looked around for a few seconds before noticing the basket by Haku's side, "What are you doing with that? A picnic?"

"No," laughed Haku, "I am just collecting herbs. A friend of mine is hurt and needs these to heal"

"Oh, ok," replied Naruto as he saw the herbs in the basket and he saw the same herb scattered all around the clearing they were in, "Do you need any help gathering more?"

Before Haku could object to the polite gesture, Naruto was already up and moving. He watched as the boy carefully pulled the plants from the ground and piled them next to him. He was fast and careful and already had the basket full within minutes. "Thank you, Naruto," said Haku as he took the basket back, "This should last me a few weeks at the most"

"I like to help when I can," was all Naruto said as he shrugged.

Hearing this, Haku gave a small thought before speaking, "If I may ask, what is your goal?"

"Goal?"

"I meant your dream for the future?" he clarified.

Naruto nodded in understanding, "Oh, well, I want to become Hokage!"

"Hokage? That is quite the dream." said Haku, "You have a long road ahead of you. But do you have the drive to achieve it?"

"Drive? What do you mean?"

"What makes you want to become Hokage? Is it power? Fame? Money? Or is it something else?"

"I wanted to be Hokage so that... everyone would respect me," Naruto said with a furrowed brow. "All my life, the people of my village hated me for something I could not control. If I become Hokage, then they won't hate me anymore."

Haku stared at the boy, whose words made him sound like a small child in need of a friend. As he looked at the blond's eyes, Haku could see himself and yet he could see so much more like the boy has experienced something that not even he nor Zabuza could comprehend. "The reason I ask," began Haku, shaking the thoughts out of his head, "is because what drives me to my goal, is my precious people. I believe that if you have someone worth protecting, that you would be willing to lay down your life for, then only then can you become truly strong. Do you have anyone like that?"

Naruto listened intently to what Haku said as the faces of his friends appeared in his mind. Sarutobi, Iruka, Ichiraku, the other Genin, even a few Jonin. After the life he had he valued friendship above anything else and he would do anything for his friends. "I never thought about it before, but I think I do."

"Then as long as you hold them close to your heart, as long as you treasure them, you too can become strong," said Haku as he stood up. Taking his basket, he left Naruto to ponder over his words before he turned his head, "It was nice meeting you Naruto, I truly wish that you will succeed in your dream."

Standing up, Naruto gave a smile as fire appeared in his eyes, showing his determination, "I will Haku, I will become Hokage and protect my friends."

As Haku continued to walk away, he stopped and gave a confused Naruto a smile. "By the way, I'm a boy," he said as left.

It took a few seconds for Naruto to process what Haku said but when it did register, his eyes widened in shock. "WHAT?!" he shouted, "BUT YOU'RE SO PRETTY!"

* * *

Kakashi was starting to get worried. It has nearly been twelve hours since Naruto ran out of the house and he still hasn't returned. Tsunami and Tazuna were getting worried as well, even Inari felt the same. Glancing over at his other two students, Kakashi saw that they were busy doing their own things like they didn't even know that Naruto was still gone.

Before he could voice his worry, the door opened. Upon instinct, he grabbed a kunai as he carefully watched who would walk in. Releasing the breath he didn't know he was holding, Kakashi sighed as he put away his kunai, "You had us all worried there, Naruto"

Grinning in slight embarrassment for having them worried, Naruto just rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry about that. I went for a walk and got lost on the road to life"

The room went silent at that, making Naruto worried he said something wrong. That is until Kakashi looked up as tears poured from his one eye while he tried to rub them away, "I am so proud of you!"

Ignoring the odd Jonin, Tsunami walked over to Naruto and felt his forehead, "Your fever seems to have gone down"

"Yeah, I think sleeping outside might have helped in a way." Tsunami was about to disagree as that shouldn't have worked but decided against it.

Once Naruto sat down, Kakashi looked at him, "I forgot to ask," he asked after making sure that neither Sasuke or Sakura were listening, "Did you happen to find the enemies hideout?"

"Didn't I send a clone to tell you where it was?"

"I might have ran off to save you when it started off saying something about you following Raiga," replied Kakashi with a nervous chuckle as Naruto glared at him slightly. "So, I'm guessing you did find it"

"You mean before I followed after Raiga, got my ass handed to me, and then unlock an awesome bloodline that feels like it's killing me?" asked Naruto in a rhetorical question. "Yeah, I did find it, wasn't that far actually. Just a mile away south of the village. I couldn't tell if there many guards as I only saw a few outside, just before Raiga showed up"

Kakashi nodded at his student as he thought to himself, "Good work, Naruto. I'll go check it out myself when I get the chance"

Naruto grunted a little as he held his head, "Damn, I think the fevers back. And here I was hoping I could train again"

"Is as bad as before or is it slowly getting worse?" asked Kakashi with a thought.

Thinking about it for a second, Naruto answered, "It's only slightly worse like my body feels a little heavier and it is a lot warmer in here. But my headache is gone for now"

"Then, as long as you don't overdo it like you normally do, you can attempt the Tree Climbing Exercise," said a smiling Kakashi as Naruto gave a grin while he went outside.

Naruto's first attempt at running up the tree failed as he fell onto his back after the first step. After half an hour, he only made it by another step before he slipped and hit his face on the tree, making Kakashi laugh. Seeing that Naruto was actually making progress, Sasuke growled to himself as he felt that he wasn't making any progress at all. But it was odd how the dobe could walk on water with ease and then, all of a sudden, lose all of his chakra control.

He had heard of the battle that took place in the village and had seen the damage himself. Until he saw it, he didn't believe that Naruto was capable of that kind of power. But as it turned out, he was holding back and that thought pissed the Uchiha. To think that someone like Naruto would be stronger than him. With that thinking in mind, Sasuke glared at the tree and ran up, managing to get three more steps up than last time before he had to mark the tree and jump down.

As Sakura sat on the ground, not even caring that she should have been training, she cheered her 'beloved love' as he continued his training. She glared in Naruto's direction, seeing that Kakashi was giving the idiot the most attention when he should have been devoting his time to teach her Sasuke. She didn't understand why he was getting all the attention. While she believed that he was there in the village while it was attacked, she genuinely thought that he was just running away from Raiga, who did all the damage himself. Next time Raiga or Zabuza show up, Sakura knew that they would be in a world of hurt when they go up against Sasuke.

Naruto ran up the tree again, managing three steps before giving a shout of surprise as he slipped and fell. Thankfully he landed on his feet but still fell over as he panted. "I can't believe I'm saying this," he said in between breaths, "But I think I'd done for the day"

"Really? It's not even lunch yet" pointed out Kakashi. With Naruto's stamina, the boy should have been able to train for hours on end. Even with the fever, he should have lasted at most another hour.

Quickly catching his breath, Naruto said, "The fevers getting worse, my head already feels like it's going to explode"

"Alright, let's get you to your room and I will get Tsunami to help," Kakashi offered, concerned for his student. If he knew what was happening exactly then he could help but there was nothing he could do and it was frustrating.

* * *

Naruto rested for the remainder of the day, not showing up until dinner. He was a little surprised to see Sasuke sitting at the table but guessed that the Uchiha finally succumbed to his hunger. The food was delicious which everyone bar Sasuke praised, to which Tsunami kept saying that she only wished she could have better food to feed them.

"Are you kidding?" asked Naruto with a smile, "Half the food in Konoha isn't as good as this!" He can honestly say that Tsunami's cooking was on his list of favourites, with ramen being number 1 of course as nothing could beat that.

"He is right," commented Kakashi, his meal finished even though no one saw him take off his mask, "I've spent a lot of time on missions and had to eat rations. That can make anyone appreciate good food." Even Sakura was eating as she was on her second bowl. The food was too good for her so she decided to ignore her diet this one time.

Inari, seeing everyone having a good time, finally snapped as he stood and slammed his hands on the table, making everyone go quiet. "What is wrong with all of you?! You are all sitting here like this is a joke!" he shouted, "Everyday you are all laughing and having fun while we're suffering! You just don't understand our pain!"

Hearing this, Naruto glared at the kid before standing up. "We don't understand?" he questioned slowly, "I'll tell you right now that the only one here that doesn't understand is YOU!" he shouted, scaring Inari and getting surprised looks from his teammates, Tsunami, and Tazuna, and a sad look from Kakashi. "You don't know what we went through to be here today!" He pointed at Kakashi, "He has seen friends and families die in front of him as he got to live!"

Kakashi looked at the table, memories of all his friend's deaths as well as his father's. _'I'm sorry,'_ he thought, truly believing that he should have been the one to die many a time.

Now pointing at Sasuke, Naruto slowly walked around the table, "At your age, Sasuke had to watch as his entire clan was murdered right in front of him! He has to live with the guilt of being the only survivor for the rest of his life as he carries their legacy!"

Now it was Sasuke's turn to look down, Naruto's words hitting him deeply. While the blond never mentioned that his brother was the one to slaughter his kinsmen, Sasuke at least appreciated the last part of the speech. With Itachi appearing in his mind, Sasuke darkly thought, _'I will kill you, brother. I will find the power I need and bring the Uchiha back to their rightful place!'_

Standing right in front of the now terrified boy, Naruto slammed his fist into the wall that Inari was backed into, "You can never understand true pain! I have lived my whole life in pain! Being beaten and having rocks thrown at me for something I had no control over! I didn't even learn why until a year ago! And even then I still feel more alone than I ever have because they can't understand how I feel! But you, you still have your mother and your grandfather to love you while I have NOBODY!"

Flames appeared in Naruto's fists, shocking everyone who saw. Almost immediately, Kakashi was on his feet as he shouted, "Naruto! That's enough!"

A few seconds later and the flames died down just as Naruto took a step away, "I'm sorry, Sensei but I going to rest now." Without another word, he left the room, leaving Inari to think over his words.

"I'm sorry," began Tsunami, concerned for the boy, "Is what the boy said true? Does he not have a family to depend on?"

Sitting back down with a sigh, Kakashi said, "Naruto is an orphan. He never got to know his parent's. He doesn't know if they are dead or if they just abandoned him on the steps of an orphanage. He was tormented by the village because he was born on the day of the Kyuubi attack. The villagers know that the Kyuubi is dead but at the time, their hatred clouded their judgement and they saw Naruto as a way for them to have their revenge on the fox." Tsunami was in tears hearing this, wondering how a sweet boy like Naruto could have a horrible past. Tazuna had the same thoughts as he drank. "What he said about the beatings and everything was also true, but he gave the simple version of everything that truly happened. I would tell you but it would only leave you with nightmares"

Inari couldn't believe what he was hearing. he just assumed that because they were Shinobi and that they lived in Konoha, they got to live wonderful lives. But he had it all wrong. A Shinobi's life was more horrifying that he could possibly imagine. Now feeling guilty for everything he said, tears welled up in his eyes.

Sasuke didn't pay attention to the story, he was only concentrating on the scorch marks that were now scarred onto the wall where Naruto punched it. _'Where the hell did the Dobe learn to do that?! It just appeared even though he didn't use any hand signs!'_ Leveling a glare at the table in front of him, Sasuke vowed to himself that he will learn where Naruto got that power from and take it from him. Sakura looked sad that Naruto led a life like that but believed he made most of it up and that Kakashi was lying as well.

Kakashi saw everyone's reaction but Sasuke's caught his attention the most. _'That can't be good. Better keep an eye on him'_

Upstairs, Naruto just sat on the bed that was given to him. He was clutching his head and his breathing became more ragged. Getting angry and using his abilities must have strengthened the fever as it came back with a vengeance. Getting more tired, Naruto laid down and tried to relax as he fell asleep but was plagued with nightmares of his past all night long.

* * *

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

I can understand if you feel that the big flashback was a bit odd and choppy but I believe that it served its purpose. Like I said before with how Naruto's character and personality changes, I did it again in the flashback. He has had training before becoming Genin and he has learned about the Kyuubi years before the Forbidden Scroll incident.

The reason I asked you all if you wanted a harem was that I usually read those kinds of stories and am working on a couple that involves it. Plus I just like the idea of Naruto with any girl and I, personally, don't like other pairings. It just makes me feel as though they should be with Naruto only.

I am also working on other stories, which is one of the reasons why I am slow to update. Hopefully, you all get to see one of the stories soon.

Anyway, thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I will do my best to update sooner but I cannot make any promises. PM me if you have any questions and please review what feel tgus cgaoter and story is worth, or don't review as the choice is up to you. Critism is welcome. As I said before, my punctuation is working with Grammarly so that if it's terrible.

Thank you again for reading and I will see you all soon in the next chapter!


	4. I am SorryAuthor's Note

I am sorry to say, but I am abandoning my fics. I have tried to write the next chapters for Flames of Emotion and Shinobi Familiar but have failed multiple times.

To be honest, I actually forgot all about the stories until recently.

Many of you will no doubt hate me for this decision but I stand by it.

If you wish to adopt my stories then please do with it as you will.

I am sorry.

Tailed Beast King.


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